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t SPECIAL SERMONS ^"^^ 

For Special Occasions 



Edited by 

E. W. THORNTON 




THE STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY 
CINCINNATI. O. 



Copyright, December, 1921 
By The Standard Publishing Company 






JAN -3 1922 

0CI.A653457 



THE EDITOR'S PERSONAL WORD 

THE assembling of the mannscripts for this book 
has been a joy — in a few instances a joy some- 
what attenuated by lengthened expectation — ^but a joy 
nevertheless. The editing has been a pleasure rather 
than a task, because it has been a sort of confiden- 
tial excursion into the hearts and minds of personal 
friends. 

Only one clond casts its shadow over the occasion 
of transferring the messages of these friends from my 
hands to yours, and that is the cloud of sadness over 
the death of E. B. Bagby, my room-mate at college 
and the writer of the sermon for Washington's Birth- 
day. The short sketch of his life, that precedes his 
sermon, was received about the time the dispatches 
were bearing news of his death. It, therefore, must 
have been among the last things that came from his 
pen. 

Probably you will note the fact that not all 
special occasions have been given a place in this group, 
but modern conditions have been so fertile in such 
occasions that to give each a special day would cover 
the calendar. 

Practically without exception these addresses and 
sermons were prepared especially for this volume, and 
in grouping the writers I have had a twofold pur- 
pose in mind: first, the assembling of a rare coterie 
of well-known men within the welcome glow of your 
reading-lamp, and, second, the presentation of an 



6 THE EDITOR'S PERSONAL WORD 

unusual array of sermons and addresses to young 
preachers and others who are interested in sermon- 
making. 

That such complimentary allusion seems to list me 
among the notables present I am well aware; but 
surely an editor who would not break into such good 
company when he has the chance could not possess the 
keenness necessary to make him an editor. 

E. W. Thornton. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

There Is Born a Saviour. 

Christmas Sermon, by E, L, Powell. « 11 

The Persuasion of Better Things. 

New Year's Day Sermon, by Gerald Culberson 21 

Abraham Lincoln. 

Lincoln's Birthday Address, by P. Y, Fendleton. 33 

Greatness in Little Things. 

Washington's Birthday Address, by E. B, Bagby 43 

The Program of Jesus. 

Missionary Day Sermon, by Harry D. Smith. - 55 

Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve. 

Decision Day Sermon, by J. H. 0, Smith ^^ „ 67 

The Resurrection. 

Easter Sermon, by W, H. Boole _ „. _ 79 

Beginning Day in the Christian Life. 

New Converts' Day Sermon, by W, N, Brmey 91 

The Mother and the Home. 

Mothers' Day Sermon, by Carey E. Morgan 107 

The Responsibility of Fatherhood. 

Fathers' Day Sermon, by George A, Miller 119 



8 CONTENTS 

Christ and Decoration Day. 

Decoration Day Sermon, by I. J. Spencer^ „ 135 

A Theory of Christian Education. 

Education Day Address, by Arthur Holmes ~ „ 153 

Work Your Own Garden. 

Commencement Day Address, by P. H. Welshimer. _ 185 

What Is Your Life? 

BaccaloAireate Sermon, by George H, Combs ^.. 201 

The American Ideal. 

Independence Day Add/ress, by E. E, Elmore „. 215 

The Majesty of Service. 

Labor Day Address, by Z. T. Sweeney - 229 

Superabundant Benefactions and Significant 

Monuments. 

Church Dedication Sermon, by Wallace Tharp 253 

^^ Then and Now. 

Church Anniversary Sermon, by Hugh McLellan 271 

Preach the Word. 

Minister's Ordination Sermon, by TV. B, Walker 283 

In Everything Give Thanks. 

Thanksgiving Day Sermon, by Mark Collis 299 

The Home Partnership. 

Wedding Anniversary Sermon, by L, N, D, Wells. 313 

Home Dynamics. 

Home-coming Day Address, by E. W, Thornton.. 323 



T^DWABJ) LINDSAY POWELL was horn May 8, 1860, in 
JJj King William County, Va., and was educated m a private 
scfiool, Norfolk, Va., and at Christian Urmersity, 'now known as 
Culver-Stockton College, Canton, Mo., where he gradnmted in 
1881, receiving the degree of B.L. Re later received the honorary 
degree of LL.D, from Transylvania College nnd University of 
Kentucky. After graduation he held short pastorates in Gor- 
donsville and Charlottesville, Va.; Eopkinsville, Ky.; Norfolk, 
Va., and Maysville, Ky., covering the yea/rs 1881-1887. In Sep- 
tember, 1887, he became minister of the First Church of Christ, 
Louisville, Ky., and is therefore now entervng upon his thirty- 
fifth year. 

Mr. Powell was president of the International Convention of 
Disciples of Christ when that body met in San Francisco. He is 
president of the Louisville Library Board, and served by appoint- 
ment as president of the Louisville Vice Commission. He is Grand 
Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky Masons and chaplai/n 
of a number of other organizations. 



Christmas Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introduction. 

Jesus unique in tlie manner of His coming. Cliristianity 
supernatural, or must take its place -with other pliilosopMes. 

I. It is good tidings to have been told that the long-looked- 
f or Messiah had actually come. 

II. Another note of joy is the announcement that the 
Christ who actually came is contemporaneous. 

III. The whole gamut is swept, however, in the climacteric 
word ** Saviour.** 



10 



THERE IS BORN A SAVIOUR 

Christmas Sermon by E. L. Powell 

Now when Jesus was bom in Bethlehem of Judaea. — Matt. 2: 1. 



» 



CHRISTMAS! It is the one unique birthday of 
recorded time. Unique as respects the babe who 
was born on that first Christmas Day in the long ago. 
*'Now when Jesus was bom in Bethlehem of Judaea'' 
there was brought into the world of humanity a child 
of flesh and blood — ^born of woman — crying, smiling, 
hungry, human, and yet unlike and different from any 
baby in the manner of His coming, who has for the 
first time opened His wondering eyes on this strange 
earth of ours. 

Unique was this wonderful babe in the manner of 
His coming, but yet completely human, *^for both he 
that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are of 
one [one nature], for which cause he is not ashamed 
to call them brethren. ' ' Mystery of mysteries ! Having 
a unique mission, a mission of redemption, related to 
the ages before His birth, and to all subsequent races 
of mankind, a mission which was held within the 
eternal purposes of God from the beginning, ante- 
dating the song of the morning stars or the breaking 
of the first morning of time, why should it be thought 
a thing incredible that without intermediary human 
agency this babe should have come into our human 
environment by the immediate touch and power of 

God? Such a child with such a mission, ''the desire 

11 



12 SPECIAL SERMONS 

of all nations," the theme of prophet and poet who 
interpreted the world's need of just such a child 
coming with just such marks of uniqueness at just 
such a time in the history of the world — such a child, 
I say, could not have come otherwise, and at the same 
time have met the requirements of faith or imagina- 
tion. God's miracles delight us. They do not stagger 
or distress our faith. 

We can not explain the mystery of dawn as it 
brightens into day. We simply rejoice in the glory. 
''Unto us is born a child ... his name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Prince of 
Peace." Why argue about the dawn? 

^'Here hatli been dawning another blue day. 
Think, wilt thou let it slip useless away? 
Out of eternity this new day was born; 
Into eternity it soon will return.'' 

What human agency is back of the dawn? Whence 
does it come? In what laboratory is light manufac- 
tured? With what pencil does the breaking day trans- 
form and transfigure the darkened earth, which but 
a moment ago was chill and cold under the mantle of 
dewy night? The virgin birth! It is the birth of 
the dawn. Explain it? Certainly not. Demonstrate 
it in intellectual terms and syllogisms? Impossible. 
Believe it and rejoice in it as you accept and rejoice 
in the dawn. ^'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, 
and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his 
name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God 
with us." How simple, almost naive, is the narrative! 
Wonderful, however, in the same way as in the older 
narrative, when ' ' God said, Let there be light, and light 
was.'' So I am trying to say that the birth of Jesus 
in Bethlehem was unique, wonderful and yet human, 



THERE IS BORN A SAVIOUR 13 

friendly, intimate and familiar as the birth of all 
babies who have made the living, sorrowing, rejoicing, 
sinning, hoping generations of mankind. Could this 
Bethlehem baby have called Himself the Son of man, 
the child of the race, if His birth had been marked 
by the limited and provincial characteristics of the 
ordinary, the usual, the local, the purely natural course 
of human arrivals? Born of a virgin, immediately 
g&erated by God, miraculous, if you please, and not 
less miraculously than matter. He becomes the child of 
humanity, and, like the sun and stars, belongs to man- 
kind. 

Our Christianity is supernatural, or it must take 
its place in the intellectual systems and philosophies 
of mankind. But while the supernatural can not be 
explained and understood by reason, it is none the 
less reasonable, and must be the subject-matter of 
reason. Science itself is nothing more than human 
reason dealing with the supernatural in objective 
nature. The first and last word of science, whatever 
its theories, hypotheses and reasoned systems, is God. 
''In the beginning — God.'' Science is but the effort of 
human reason to tell us how God is working, and has 
uniformly worked, in the continuous creation of the 
universe, and natural law is nothing more than God's 
way of doing things. Jesus is the great exception, a 
break in the uniformity of the working of the natural 
law of generation and birth. There is here no contra- 
vention or contradiction of law. It is an exception, 
a departure from God's usual way, but no violation or 
contradiction of the usual, unless we shall say that 
there is no room in God's universe for the exceptional, 
and that God is imprisoned by the methods and proc- 
esses of His own creation. 



14 SPECIAL SERMONS 

But pardon this brief excursion into the domain of 
science and theology. This is a Christmas sermon. 
"We want to hear the celestial choir chanting the 
^^ Gloria in Excelsis'^; we want to hear the angelic 
trumpets startling the simple Bethlehem shepherds 
with such music as had never rolled over earth's hills, 
nor brought human hearts to such a glow of vibrant 
happiness. '^Behold, I bring you good tidings of great 
joy/' said the tall angel, as prelude and introduction 
to the message of the whole heavenly host: ^'Unto you 
is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is 
Christ the Lord." Heaven's full and complete message 
and music, the real Christmas music, is that uttered 
by the full chorus, the completion, complement and ful- 
fillment of the tall angel's prelude. The one angel 
announces the text: *^ Behold, I bring you good tidings 
of great joy." The full chorus preaches the sermon: 
''Unto you is born this day in the city of David a 
Saviour, who is Christ the Lord." 

I. It is good tidings indeed to Jiave been told tJiat 
this long-looked-for Messiah had actually come. Hope 
long deferred attains its fruition. ''Unto you is born." 
We are not so much concerned as to the circumstances 
or manner of His coming. Has He been born? It is 
the historic Christ whose arrival the angels proclaim. 
He is actual. You can touch His baby hands. He is 
objective flesh and blood. "Art thou he that should 
come?" asks the doubting prophet. Jesus says: "Go 
show John the things you have seen." The actual 
Christ doing the very things which long ago the 
prophets had said the Messiah would do. The dream 
has come true. See the Christ stand! No fancy, no 
disembodied or discarnate ideal, no depersonalized sys- 
tem of philosophy, no cold metaphysical abstraction. 



THERE IS BORN A SAVIOUR 15 

On the contrary, warm flesh and blood — concrete, ob- 
jective, personal — ^who will presently begin ^'to do and 
to teach,'' and to so wondrously influence the select 
company of His apostles that one of them shall say, 
speaking for the others and for those who subsequently 
should believe in Him through their teaching: ^'Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Chris- 
tianity is based on solid, substantial fact — a divinely 
human personality, who lived, taught, wrought, suf- 
fered, died, was buried and rose again, and thenceforth 
governing, guiding, redeeming human life, as the 
ascended spiritual Christ ^^whom not having seen we 
love.'' Christmas gets us away from the speculative 
in our religion, and brings us down to earth where 
we live and sin and suffer — the only place where a real 
Saviour can find His task, and where an abstract Christ 
is wholly without a mission. 

II. AnotJier note of joy in fhis full Christmas music 
is tJie announcement tTiat tJiis Christ who has actually 
come is contemporaneous, ''Unto us is bom this day 
in the city of David." This Christ of ours is of even 
date. It is always in the ministry of Jesus this day, 
this city, this generation. He has been the contemporary 
of all ages and generations, else redemption could not 
have continued longer or further than His personal 
ministry in the flesh. ''Before Abraham was I am." 
His historic birth in terms of time was the monumental 
and historic expression of His continuous redemptive 
presence through the ages. "He loved me and gave 
himself for me," this day, this man, this Saul of 
Tarsus, this house of Zaccheus in which he must abide, 
unto you and me, unto our age and day with its pe- 
culiar problems of peace and war, with its confused 
democracy and yet near attainment, how contempora- 



16 SPECIAL SERMONS 

neons the announcement : ^ ' Unto yon is bom this day in 
the city of David a Savionr, who is Christ the Lord/' 

III. TTie whole gamut is swept, Jiowever, in tlie 
climacteric word ^^ Saviour/' It matters not, save for 
academic and intellectnal considerations, that the 
Christ-child has come, that He is the Messiah long 
looked for and passionately desired, that He has been 
recognized by His own conntrymen as none other than 
the one of whom *' Moses in the law and the prophets 
did write''; so mnch as that the Christ identified by 
all the marks of type and prophecy has come to a 
continuous ministry of redemption, "We must hear the 
sustaining and undergirding word in this mighty 
anthem: ''Unto yon is born this day in the city of 
David a Saviour.'^ That last word describes the cir- 
cumference and embraces the diameter of God's pur- 
pose for humanity. ''Thou shalt call his name Jesus, 
for he shall save the people from their sins." 

Here is one at last who is doing, and has been 
doing all through the centuries, that which none other 
has attempted; namely, saving the soul of man from 
Bin. Prior to His coming the best which could be done 
for sin-stricken humanity resulted in little more than 
an ameliorated and improved moral and mental en- 
vironment. Philosophy had been tried in her noblest 
representatives — a Plato, an Aristotle, a. Socrates — ^but 
philosophy could not touch the heart, conscience, mo- 
tives, the inner springs from which proceed the issues 
of life and destiny. Not "the glory that was Greece, 
or the grandeur that was Rome," could bring to man 
the consciousness of sins forgiven, and of recovered 
moral self-respect. Neither Judaism with its law, nor 
the mighty prophets of righteousness, could do more 
than discover and reveal sin, leaving man impotent 



THERE IS BORN A SAVIOUR 17 

and helpless in the consciousness of its grip. ''What 
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the 
flesh, God, by sending his own Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." 
He does not deal with symptoms, but strikes at the 
disease itself. He does not announce some little pro- 
gram of readjustment, rehabilitation and artificial re- 
construction or reformation. ''I have come that ye 
might have life, and might have it more abundantly." 
He does not save by rules and props and regulations 
or statutory enactments, but by the law of the spirit 
of life in Christ Jesus. ''He hath made me free from 
the law of sin and of death." 

A personal Saviour for all who would be saved 
from sin — "good tidings of great joy for all people" — 
this is the glorious announcement which came ringing 
from the sky on that first Christmas Day two thousand 
years ago. "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
acceptation, that Christ came into the world to save 
sinners." I have read somewhere a parable which 
represents a man in a pit waiting and praying for 
delivery. Buddhism comes that way, and, looking down 
upon the poor fellow in his misery, says: "You did not 
walk into the pit; you did not run into the pit; in 
some previous state of incarnation you came into this 
pit." "Very true," says the man, "but of what avail 
if you can do nothing to get me out?" Likewise, 
Mohammedanism passes and says: "It is the will of 
Allah." "I do not dispute your statement," replies 
the man in the pit, "but how does that help me out?" 
And so the philosophies, theologies and cults pass by, 
impotent and powerless to get the man out of the pit. 
Finally, Jesus comes that way and asks, "Wilt thou 
be made whole?" and without philosophy or theory, 



18 SPECIAL SERMONS 

but with the grip of a mighty love, he lifts the man 
out of his prison into the sunlight of happiness. The 
question is not as to the truth or falsity of the creeds 
and philosophies and theologies. They may all be 
perfectly true, only they can not save a soul. ^'Weak- 
ness'' is Paul's word in this connection. ''What the 
law could not do in that it was weak." 

Christmas brings to us the glorious evangel of 
Christ's redeeming love. Pre-eminently it brings a 
message to little children. It does more, however; it 
brings a universal message. It offers hope — a sure 
hope of salvation and moral recovery to the worst of 
sinners. Glorious Christ! Glorious gospel! Glorious 
hope! ''And now unto him who is able to keep us 
from falling, and to present us faultless before the 
presence of his glory, unto the only wise Grod our 
Saviour, be glory and majesty and power and do- 
minion, both now and forever." 

'^When Christmas comes, 
In field and street, in mart and farm, 
The world takes on a lovelier charm; 
;Sweet-scented boughs of pine and fir 
Are brought like frankincense and myrrh, 
To make our hallowed places meet 
For hands thait clasp and tones that greet. 
While hearts worth more than gold or gem 
Go forth to find this Bethlehem, 
When Christmas coanes,'* 



GEBALD CULBEBSON was hom Dec. 1, 1879, at Waynes- 
ville, N, C, and was educated at Johnson Bible College, 
Tenn.y and Bethany College, W, Va., graduating in the latter 
institution in 1905. 

Mr, Culberson organized the co<ngregation of the church of 
Christ and built the chAirch at Chester, W. Va, Under his min- 
istry the church at Clifton Forge, Va,, was built. For nine years 
he held a pastorate in Bichmond, Va., and for three years he did 
a successful worJc with the church at Bedford, Ind, 

At this writing he is in charge of the church at BecJcley, 
W, Va., where he is also president of the Ministers* Assoduiion, 
and a member of the Board of Directors of the BecMey Chamber 
of Commerce, 



19 



New Year's Sermon 

OUTLINE 

I. New Year's Day Is a Day of Retrospective Witness. 

1. Tlie witness of opportunities gone. 

2. Tlie witness of shortcomings. 

II. New Year's Day Is a Day of Persuasions Ahead. 

1. The persuasion of better living. 

2. The persuasion of an honorable death. 

3. The persuasion of a glorious life beyond. 



20 



* THE PERSUASION OF BETTER 
THINGS 

New Year's Sermon by Gerald Culberson 

But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and 
things that accompany salvation. — Heb. 6: 9. 

THIS is a text for the present day. It gives ns the 
backward look and the forward focus at New 
Year. Human desire to retrieve and improve is upper- 
most at this season. There is pull in the words, ''We 
are persuaded better things of you.'' They call to us 
from the heights ; they are so warm and personal. Like 
a mother's love notes to a truant son; like a father's 
melting accents to a boy inclining to waywardness; 
like the tones of a friend whose confidence we had 
almost betrayed — ^they strike deep. As a blow upon 
the body brings the blood rushing to the spot, this 
barbless shaft, ''better things of you," calls in the 
vagrant powers to soul-center, and impels us to 
inquire, "Soul of mine, I call you to witness this day, 
is it true?'^ 

New Year's Day is witness day. The old saints 
and servants of God in their journey ings, when they 
reached a milestone or turning-point, stood by to erect 
an altar, and thereupon, thanking God and taking 
courage, they vowed vows of new meaning and went 
forward. Bethel, Peniel and Ebenezer were very real 
to them, and therefore stood as witnesses through all 

21 



22 SPECIAL SEEMONS 

subsequent endeavors. They were points by the way 
of new and more noble departure: life was different 
afterward, altered in direction or in quality, or in both. 

Theirs was an association of events with place. So 
is ours, only we have in addition another association, 
one which is coming more and more to be an altar of 
common witness with humanity — the association of 
time with events. 

Thus days, many days, are memorial days with us, 
and days of convocation. Among these is New Year's 
Day, the milestone of the year's flight; long marked 
and observed, to be sure, by generations before, but 
now come to be with us the day for an invoice of life, 
for individual stocktaking of character. It is the time 
when we review the past, hopefully scan the future, 
and seriously, sometimes mercilessly, scrutinize the 
present with the view to forsaking the baser levels of 
life, lifting our ideals and improving our conduct and 
character. 

Thus may the day become hallowed to an honest 
inventory of self-qualities and to vows for self-en- 
noblement, particularly if its witness be in the fear of 
Grod, in the light of His truth, and in the power of 
His conscious presence. New Year resolutions, under 
such circumstances, will become a sacred altar, the 
secret persuasions of which will devoutly carry us 
forward. Shall we be bold enough, earnest enough, 
this day to submit ourselves to the test, and be the 
richer for this altar's wise and prudent oracles? Let 
us listen to the more temporal ones first. 

There is the inner witness that speaks of the year 
that is gone, together with many others never to be 
recalled in this life. Whatever may have been the 
indifference or levity with which we paid off the year's 



PEESUASION OF BETTER THINGS 23 

golden ream of days, we would hardly be so careless 
again. The days seem more valuable now that they 
are gone. Had we once more their wealth of time and 
opportunity at our disposal, we are sure we could turn 
it to better account. Their mute but mighty appeal is 
''unto better things.'^ 

Again that inner voice speaks the still more blanch- 
ing fact of shortcomings and failures. It appears to 
us now that the sum total of our living up to this 
point has been of no account. Yes, we know that it 
was spoken by One supremely wise, ''That when ye 
have done all, ye should say we are unprofitable ser- 
vants.'' But we did want to feel that we were accom- 
plishing things worth while. We tried hard to do 
good and not evil. "We were sure we could win out 
completely over some foes particularly harassing. We 
would overcome sloth on the one hand, and impatience 
on the other. We would curb our too great temper 
here, and unloose it yonder where it was justifiable. 
No, the many broken vows and the whole or partial re- 
verses did not steal our hope, and we persevered; and 
as we look back we are reassured. There was some 
progress made. It was "the persuasion of better 
things" then, and so shall it be now as the New Year 
beckons. 

And just as we are resolving, the brightest note of 
the season peals forth, "Ring out the old, ring in the 
new." Another lease on life is proffered, time is 
lengthening our course, the glad thought comes: "I 
can, I really can, redeem the residue of my days unto 
greater wisdom and happiness." Happy New Year, 
blessed gift of God, who giveth bountifully, even more 
than is deserved! Truly our times are in His hand; 
He doeth all things well — ^but hold, not so fast — if our 



24 SPECIAL SERMONS 

time is in His hand, it is not ours after all, but His, 
His time He has put in our hand. Oh, solemn thought ! 
The years, the days, the hours. A great preacher once 
called them ''God's angels." He was visiting a metro- 
politan club one Sunday afternoon, and, seeing so many 
young men lounging about, and being told by them 
that they were ''just killing a little time," he ex- 
claimed, "Killing time, gracious, mercy, men, I'd as 
soon think of cutting the throats of God's angels." 

The final witness gotten from our New Year altar 
in this connection is quite the most solemn: "What will 
you do with the future? It is even now lifting its 
enchanted curtain for your entry. Friend, if there 
ever was a point in your earthly pilgrimage when the 
heart should be mellow and the spirit vibrant to the 
full chord of life's challenge, it is when this yearly 
corner is turned for the look ahead. 

Good old King Hezekiah's words — as in truth his 
solemn plight — rise to mind with singular force: "It 
is a light thing for the shadow to decline ten steps" — 
time is so swift and easy in its approach and speeding. 
"Nay, but let the shadow return backward ten steps!" 
' — time is so hard and heavy in its retrieving. 

Particularly, when life itself is put in the balance 
the shadows on the dial are measurable to a degree 
hitherto unnoted. Could we be told after the fashion 
of Hezekiah that this was our last day and last year, 
and then retold that it was the new day and year 
released unto us, time would be as the blood of our 
strength and its conservation as the law of life. 
"Self-preservation, life's first law?" Then, time con- 
servation is its twin. 

I wonder if, after all, the note of New Tear is 
not the elemental one of preserving health and strength 



PERSUASION OF BETTER THINGS 25 

so that one can function better and last longer in the 
service of God and His fellows upon earth. 

Thoughts of to-day must center upon principles of 
clean conduct developing a wholesome and hardy 
physique, as a foundation for spiritual achievement, 
and a preparation for the joy of right living. It is 
an aphorism that age and wisdom are most in com- 
panionship. "What a loss, then, is entailed upon those 
learners and seekers after wisdom who must needs go 
too often on frail limb and with halting step. 

^^ Please urge the youth in your charge," wrote a 
great man once to a prominent educator, ^^to take 
better care of their health. Here I am in the fullness 
and ripeness of mental ability and efficiency, and this 
honor is tendered me, this preferment at the hands of 
my brethren, which has been a dream of. my life; and 
now, as you know, I can not accept because of bodily 
infirmity and shattered nerve. I know now how Tan- 
talus felt when the water eluded his thirsty lips." 

The power of an army depends upon the physical 
fitness of its men. Is it different with those who would 
make spiritual conquests? Nay, it is more imperative 
that the warrior whose banner is righteousness, whose 
warfare is, confessedly, not carnal, whose ideal is a 
body subjected, be cleanest and soundest. 

The report is both common and credible that min- 
isters of the gospel stand at the top as the best risks 
in mortuary tables. Whether all Christians other than 
the ^'preaching brethren" will be able to disentangle 
themselves from the lower general average, should be 
an interesting and profitable matter to investigate and 
resolve upon at New Year. 

But this season is not without meanings more 
definitely spiritual. Only the thoughtless can miss its 



26 SPECIAL SERMONS 

powerful persuasions for the soul. To many it must 
represent the Great Divide — death on the one side, life 
on the other — the narrow defile between. 

These, while beholding the glow of dawn just across, 
and thrilling with eagerness for the brimming light 
of a shadowless eternity, still feel the depression of 
mortality. Such souls are not morbid; they are pro- 
phetic. They would mark the somber fact that the 
pass, at best, is not far ahead. Did not the Old Year 
die, as all years must die, and with it millions like 
ourselves? Their requiem was chanted at stroke of 
twelve. Ours was not, but our tide will move out with 
the same quick ebb. ''When folks about here make 
their last lonely voyage," said Old Pegotty to David 
Copperfield, as they stood by the death-bed of Barkis, 
''they mostly go out with the tide.'' 

Our thoughts should go out, if our spirits do not, 
with the tide of the Old Year as it bears upon its bosom 
the necrology of its multitudes. We are not overcome 
at sight of this moribund recession. We are not cast 
down by a sense of futility and despair. On the con- 
trary, we scan our margin of time prayerfully and 
gird us about for the departure. Through faith and 
the divine alchemy of the love that endureth all things 
we are bowed Samson-like unto greater strength. Just 
as the choicest flowers spring from the muck of disin- 
tegration and decay, just as the finest fragrances of 
human sympathy arise from the depths of privation 
and disappointment, so does the master spirit in man 
arise from disaster. "Man is a curious animal. He 
seems to give forth his finest fruit only when crushed. 
When we expect him 'to curse God and die,' suddenly 
his face lights up with the heavenly vision, ' ' and he 
dares to go on, though he grope his way. 



PERSUASION OF BETTER THINGS 27 

It was the persuasion of death that in God's Son 
kindled the noble passion of vicarious love. Is death 
called the Great Leveler? Why not the Great Lifter? 
Does not every serious thought of death inspire us to 
lift the wretched from the mire of their wretchedness? 
New Year's Day should give us this persuasion cer- 
tainly, lest living too far removed from thoughts of our 
dissolution we live too selfishly and miss its ministry 
of transfiguration. 

Alexander Hamilton's son writes that on the night 
before the fatal duel with Burr his father said to him, 
''My son, you will sleep with me to-night." ''When we • 
had retired my father caught me to his arms, and, 
pressing me to his heart, he kissed me again and again. 
Then he said, 'Now let us pray the Lord's Prayer 
together.' After that, with many tears, he would say, 
' Oh, my boy, I love you so ; I could not leave you were 
there no hope of reunion'." Such transfiguration of 
hope nerved the elder Hamilton, no doubt, to fire his 
pistol in the air the next day, and not at his antag- 
onist. 

But another shadow is pierced by the light from 
the farther side of our altar of witness — ^the shadow of 
sin. It is not native to that land of our earthly future 
any more than to the Land Aglow beyond, for both are 
still with God. The twain are His, and their persuasion 
is of a state "where the wicked cease from troubling, 
and the weary are at rest." The persuasion of one is 
the persuasion of the other; heaven and the exalted 
Christian life. 

How near are these in one sense! Just a step, a 
second's fiight of time, the measure between the old 
and the new. How far in another — in realization ! So 
immense is the distance, so impassable the gulf — once 



28 SPECIAL SERMONS 

crossed — that many faint at the thought even of ever 
reaching it. Yet from of old is the surety for men: 
''Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, 
shall it not be lifted up? And if thou doest not well, 
sin coucheth at the door." 

"Waiving the theology of this our human faintness — 
whether it be because of love for sin, or whether it be 
from over-confidence in the Father heart of God this 
fact stands out unimpeached : the spirit of man ever 
suffers the attacks of conscience and therefore must be 
under the ''persuasion of better things, the things that 
accompany salvation. ' ' 

The consistency of man's nature, as well as of all 
nature, cries out for renovation. The gospel scheme 
of salvation is the only full and final answer to the 
interrogations of man's conscience. Eclectic schools of 
religion may blast away at spurious consciences; con- 
science ever remains. Even a casual observer must 
note that the "Divine Sonship Cultists" are all the 
time "groaning along with the rest of creation," 
waiting for a manifestation of sonship that is more 
real than any that a Christless individual or society 
knows. 

No man can demolish sin with a mere gesture of 
contempt. Sin is real and deadly. He who is impris- 
oned in its tomb is in captivity to corruption, and 
seekers at this tragic sepulchre still ask, "Who shall 
roll away the stone?" and "Who will proclaim our 
year of release?" 

There is no deliverance possible apart from the 
Christ of God and the blood of His cross. Release 
is signed, sealed and delivered in the New Testament 
Scriptures. He who is attested by many infallible 
proofs to be Lord of all is our Saviour from sin. He 



PERSUASION OF BETTER THINGS 29 

gave Himself in token sufficient to heal the world's 
hurt, change its unhappy disorders and give newness 
and soundness to wholly obedient members of the 
human family. 

Such joyful condition is possible this side the Great 
Divide. miracle of miracles — it is the Great Divide 
itself! ^^ Death hath no more dominion over you." 
Shadows are about you, but as remote from you as the 
East from the West. 

That this dominion over sin and death is real is 
the new year's sublimest persuasion. Never mind the 
discomfitures of the past. Never mind the inconsis- 
tencies in the lives of some who claim His promises, 
but are devoid of His power. This is not the failure 
of Christ, but the failure of those who are too insincere 
to apprehend Him. 

His is the one master mind ever working toward 
unity and integrity among men. How can our thoughts 
and purposes proceed toward orderliness, or our tangled 
inheritances be administered toward intelligence and 
peace without His persuasions? We dream of universal 
brotherhood, and, by the way, that dream was inspired 
by Him; but bungling men insist upon marring its 
beauty and dissipating its force by racial, national 
and sectarian cleavages, obviously contrary to His will. 

We dream of individual righteousness, a dream that 
is another gleam from the light that He was in the 
world ; but again there are men who interpret the dream 
in the terms of self-righteousness, preening the fancied 
superiority of their own feathers instead of rejoicing 
in the beauty of holiness possible to every man. 

If ever the idea of universal brotherhood should 
focus with the idea of personal integrity to burn 
through the veneer of modern materialism, it will be 



30 SPECIAL SERMONS 

due to the mind of Christ. All persuasions unto sal- 
vation other than His are phosphorescent or fraud- 
ulent. 

At this beginning time, the time of the new year's 
birth, may we all be persuaded by the persuasion of 
our Lord that he will keep that which we have com- 
mitted unto Him against that great and final day, and 
in His way, the way of the cross and the blood, may we 
walk. Then we shall sing as those 

''Who carry musie in their hearts 
Through dusty lanes and wrangling marts, 
Plying their tasks with busier feet, 
Because their souls a holier strain repeat.'' 



PEILIF Y. PENDLETON was horn at BetTmnj, W, Va,; 
gra^imted from Bethcmy College m 1884, and has since 
received from that institution the A.M. and LL.D. degrees. 

He spent a number of years vn commentary worlc on the Bible- 
school lesson literature of The Standard Publishing Company. 
He has held pastorates with the Vine Street Church of Christ, 
Nashville, Tenn.; the First Chwrch at New Castle, Pa., and the 
churches at Valparaiso, Ind., and Cedar Eapids, la. At this 
writing he has accepted a call to the church at Phcenix, Ariz. 

Mr, Pendleton was professor of Logic and Biblical Literature 
in Phillips Bible Institute, and dean of the Bible department at 
Valparaiso University, 



31 



Lincoln's Birthday Address 

OUTLINE 

I. The Paradox of American History. 

Opportunities of an ignoramus witii tlie soul of a genius. 
With backwoods schooling he reached eminence in literature. 
The village postmaster became the chief of Presidents. Though 
sad of face and manner, he made the world smile. Reared in 
irreligious environment, he became reUgious. Mingling with the 
rich, he was the poor man's friend. 

II. An Outstanding Man in All History. 

Outstanding because he was a mankind man. Outstanding 
because, in many respects, he was not unlike the Master. 



82 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln^s Birthday Address by P. Y. Pendleton 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN! What pulse does not 
quicken at the mention of his name? What 
people does not know him? What nation does not 
honor him? The fact that his conspicuous life was a 
many-sided paradox in a measure accounts for his 
universal popularity. 

His was the schooling of the pioneer, scanty and de- 
fective. He learned little from the backwoods teachers 
of his day; they had little to impart. There were 
practically no books in his own home, and very few in 
the homes about him, so there were not above a half- 
dozen for his use. Thus his opportunities left him an 
ignoramus, but his great soul made him a genius. 

He had visions which brought him into command of 
the purest language and the highest graces of litera- 
ture; and noble purposes which refined speech because 
they first refined the heart whose fullness filled the 
mouth with utterance. Untutored and unlearned save 
by self-culture, he enriched our literature with the 
Gettysburg Address. Consider the paradox of it ! His 
literary excellencies blossomed forth despite their un- 
favorable environment like lilies in the noxious swamp. 
The swamp marveled at their beauty, but the modest 
lilies knew no pride. Like Robert Burns, this great 
American received, in the school of English, his di- 
ploma directly from the hand of God. 

3 33 



34 SPECIAL SERMONS 

And in his official career we also meet with paradox. 
In official station he passed from the extreme bottom 
to the exalted top. The village postmaster became the 
chief of Presidents. Starting as one observed of no- 
body, he ended as the cynosure of everybody. And 
though he was postmaster, it might almost be ques- 
tioned whether he was or not, since his pockets were 
his till, his office was his hat, and his general delivery 
was wherever he chanced to be met. And even in this 
office he merited distinction, for he anticipated by 
half a century the convenience of the rural route. 

The spirit of wit has long since told the world that 
pride struts in extremes. It is found in lieutenants 
and crops out in generals. But Lincoln was equally 
informal as postmaster or as President. As the 
nation's chief executive he appointed his greatest polit- 
ical rivals to fill the highest offices of government, and 
then went about stating, without ostentation or self- 
depreciation, that *'he had very little influence with 
the present Administration." And this brings to mind 
another paradox in Lincoln that holds us with its 
unequaled charm. 

He was the sad-faced humorist, the jester with the 
tear-stained cheek. Somehow born to sorrow, cradled 
in penury, nurtured in struggle and brought at last 
"to spend the strength of his prime as a man of peace 
'erwhelmed with the burdens of war, with what pathos 
does his humor appeal to us! Life was to him an 
almost unbroken storm. The clouds hung low and 
heavy, and the pitiless, drenching rain of fraternal 
strife drowned out all the tender things. It made the 
pleasant paths unsightly and the lanes and highways 
impassable, and caused the glory of life's day to be 
overcast with gloom and sorrow. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 35 

Yes, it was all this and more, but ever and anon 
the nation lifted its weary eyes toward the dark 
firmament of those cheerless times, and beheld with joy 
the clear bine sky, and the warm, strong glory of the 
snn of hope, for Lincoln, in his kind, droll way, had 
said the thing that only Lincoln could say — ^the thing 
that made men smile, brought good cheer and would 
not be denied. What he said was no idle jest, no 
rasping discord, no strained effort to present a face 
of courage in the hour of defeat. No, it was too 
homely and unadorned to seem unfit, too natural to 
appear untimely or even somewhat ill-advised. It was 
but the utterance of hope irrepressible, beautiful as 
God's rainbow resting in peaceful calm upon the whirl- 
ing, storm-racked cloud; sublime, yet simple as the 
childlike heart of noble man. Broken-hearted men 
and women would have died, but just then Lincoln 
told a story, and the soul of the public returned unto 
its rest, the nation smiled and so lived on. Truly his 
humor in the darkness of the war was as God's nourish- 
ing manna in the wilderness, as a sudden rift of sun- 
shine glinting through the storm-bound heavens, or as 
the midnight song at Philippi that with unwonted 
glory swept all sadness from the jail-cursed hours and 
duly compassed God's deliverance. 

Born in the South, and of Southern parentage, he 
imbibed the spirit of the South, and, moving thence 
to the North, he adopted the moral-political concepts of 
the North. He thus became cosmopolitan in sentiment 
as only the larger American can become cosmopolitan. 

This view of our first martyr President is seen only 
in its unfinished outline. The ruthless violence of the 
assassin removed the partly finished canvas of his 
life from the present world before the hand and brush 



36 SPECIAL SERMONS 

of God had filled in the outlines, or brought the colors 
to completion. 

The South will never know the touch of that recon- 
structive, kindly hand. Its ministration of mercy was 
abruptly stayed in the very hour of greatest need. The 
superb promise of the second inaugural — ''With malice 
toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the 
right as God gives us to see the right," stands as but 
a promise whose deep sincerity breathes in the artless 
simplicity of its wording, but whose beneficent fulfill- 
ment was hindered by satanic spite. 

But if we made final pause here, we would pass un- 
noticed the greatest paradox in Lincoln's life — ^his fel- 
lowship with God. The years of his boyhood were spent 
where even morality was crude and where religion was 
largely a caricature. The coarse and the vulgar impreg- 
nated the very air. That this miasma of immorality 
and indecency left lasting imprint on his impressive 
nature is beyond doubt. He frequently, even in his 
prime, shocked the nation's sentiment of ultra refine- 
ment and sorely tried the patience of the sensitive and 
truly cultured. Familiarity with unrefined humanity 
in all its crassness and sinful unrestraint made Lincoln 
a non-religious man. He never united with any 
church. Indeed, it was only in the last few weeks of 
his life that he ever, so far as history shows, manifested 
any desire or determination to do so ; though his aloof- 
ness was exceptional. Among Presidents, church mem- 
bership is the rule. 

But the trials of war changed his heart. From 
a spirit of levity bordering on lewdness, and an atti- 
tude of self-sufficiency approaching callous indifference, 
he developed into a man phenomenal in prayer. Not 
a ritualist was he, not a mouther of beautifully round- 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 37 

ed sentences, ornate with attractive tropes, and embel- 
lished with choice and well-selected figures. No, nor 
was he of that somewhat holier order, who with real 
emotion and worshipful spirit quote precious rhetori- 
cal gems picked from the Psalms, and celestial jewels 
drawn from other Scripture. On the contrary, he was 
a prayer man, christened in the dews of a Gethsemane ; 
a wrestling Jacob, panting for a blessing; a man of 
few words, but manifold groanings which could never 
be uttered. 

Thus the one who went out with but little moral 
refinement and less religious pretension, came back 
across his grass-trampled, sod-torn Jabbok, an Israel; 
a prince who could prevail with God in prayer and 
who could lead the ministry of a Christian nation into 
truer conception of intercession than it had ever known. 
Yes, this self-sufficient Western giant became the most 
dependent upon God of all the men of his age. 

Moreover, he began life's struggle with the poor. 
His family had no position, no station. Hence there 
has been none in America so humble in circumstances 
as to feel himself beneath the reach of Lincoln's under- 
standing sympathy. Sympathy! what a world of it he 
had. To the end the poor man was his brother, and 
the outcast, the unfortunate and the negro slave his 
bosom friend. And this friendship was simple, genuine. 
He exalted himself as no man's patron, he manifested no 
stooping condescension even when exercising his power- 
ful governmental prerogatives in behalf of the most 
justly convicted private in the army, or the most 
obscure, unrecognized, disfranchised citizen whose needs 
cried aloud to him for help. 

Nor did he at any time show any sense of shame 
while espousing the cause of the disreputable or despised. 



38 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Others, springing from such lowly origin, might have hes- 
itated before thus again identifying themselves with the 
socially ostracized, whose past familiarity they would 
fain forget. They might well have feared lest the 
public suspect a bond of kinship all too close with 
these unworthy objects of their solicitude. Pride, like 
Simon Peter, ardently denies the compromising friend- 
ships and associations of an accusing past. But to 
Lincoln there was no past. He never abandoned the 
people of his youth; rising in life, he took them with 
him, and was unashamed. He never outgrew a friend- 
ship; his heart was too large to follow a course so 
small. His humble soul scorned snobbishness. He 
was the most democratic of all republicans, the poorest 
in spirit of all the Presidents, therefore let us ex- 
plain his matchless magnanimity by believing that he 
attained the promise of the Beatitude and in some 
clear way saw God. 

Truly he was the poor man's friend, and yet in 
daily life he walked and mingled in harmonious fellow- 
ship with the richest and the mightiest, and was a free 
American, and unafraid. He felt no embarrassment 
at their wealth, no envy at their power, no rancor or 
bitterness at their superlatively superior advantages 
for attaining honors, pleasures, knowledge and power. 
With a spirit of equanimity as rare in the world as the 
society of angels, he, the son and heir of the poor man, 
was brother to the rich and powerful, and felt no 
pangs of insufficiency, no pains of jealous pride. If 
any of the aristocracy failed to meet him on his level 
plane of frank goodfellowship, he pitied their weakness, 
and passed silently on, sparing himself the trouble of 
idle and wasted comment. There were big things in 
life that could be cured; why worry over little things 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 39 

that were beyond remedy ? They would have their day 
and die, and be no more. 

Thus compassing a gamut of life somewhat like 
that which started in the manger, and ended on the 
cross, Abraham Lincoln entered into experiences simi- 
lar to those common to the vast majority of mankind, 
because he included in that compass all the classes 
ranging from the lowest to the highest. Thus to men 
of all stations, in every civilized land, he left an 
example of noble, patient, faithful citizenship, which 
has been rarely equaled, never excelled. 

"We do well to do him honor, for his spirit breathes 
a wholesome influence even in the most turbulent times, 
and his life is, and will be, associated with the fate of 
the '^ Stars and Stripes" forever. 

Old Glory, our Glory, 

His Glory, too; 
Abraham Lincoln, 

We're grateful to you. 



j-pDWABD B, BAGBY^ was horn Sept ^P, 1865, at Walkerton, 
mJj Va,, and received Ms college education at Transylvania, Col- 
lege of the Bible, Lexington, Ky., graduating with the B.A, 
degree. He later received the B.D. degree from Yale Divinity 
School, He was minister of the Ninth Street Church of Christ, 
Washington, D. C, for fifteen years; Franklim, Circle, Cleveland, 
0., two years; Ft, Smith (Arlc.) First Church, four years; Twenty- 
fifth Street, Baltimore, Md., four years, and from 1916 to the 
present time has teen with the Cohimhia Heights Chwrch in Wash- 
ington, D. C, 

Mr, Baghy was chaplain of the House of Bepresentatives dur- 
ing the Fifty-third Congress, and chairman of Co^mmittee on 
Chaplains that selected the one hundred chaplains from the Dis- 
ciples of Christ for the army and navy during the World War, 
He has been either regular or special contributor to a number of 
religious journals, and has lectured extensively. 



*Mr. Bagby died at his home in Washington, D. C, Sept. 2, 1921. 
The data for the above sketch were penned by him but a few days before 
his death. — Ed. 



41 



Washington's Birthday Address 

OUTLINE 

Introduction. 

L WasMngton Higli in tlie TMngs the World Counts Great. 

1. Tributes from Mgli sources. 
n. High in the Minor Elements of Greatness. 

1. Respected his mother. 

2. Gracious in his family. 

3. Just in his dealings. 

4. Careful of details. 

5. Patient under criticism. 

6. Humble amid honors. 

m. On the Plane of These Lesser Heights, We May Make 
Him Our Example. 

1. Illustrated tiioughts upon this point. 



42 



GREATNESS IN LITTLE THINGS 

Washington's Birthday Address by E. B. Bagby 

He tliat i-s slow to anger is better tliaii the mighty; and he 
that nileth his spirit than he that taketh a city. — Pro v. 16: 32. 

THE Mecca toward which all visitors to the Capital 
City wend their way is Mount Vernon, the home 
of Washington. Every day throngs board the steamer 
for this trip down the Potomac, and as they leave the 
dock, the tip of the "Washington Monument may be 
seen peeping above the intervening houses and trees. 
As the city recedes in the distance its sky-line seems to 
fade and diminish, while the tall shaft stands out in 
larger and bolder outline, until at last it dominates 
the whole landscape. It is thus a fitting memorial of 
George Washington, who did not in the first days of 
our republic seem to tower pre-eminently above his 
contemporaries, but whose figure as we pass down the 
stream of time constantly grows greater, until now it 
fills the whole horizon of our early history — imposing, 
commanding, majestic. 

George Washington stands high in the things the 
world counts great. He was a member of a wealthy 
Virginia family of noble lineage. His courage was 
proven upon many a hard-fought field of battle. He said 
of the battle of Great Meadows, ''I heard the bullets 
whistle, and believe me there is something charming 
in the sound. ' ' When only twenty-two. Colonel Fairfax 
could write him from Williamsburg, ''Your health 

43 



44 SPECIAL SERMONS 

and fortune are the toast of every table." Patrick 
Henry declared that, ^^for solid information and sound 
judgment, he was unquestionably the greatest man on 
the floor of the Continental Congress." As a strategist, 
he is ranked with Marlborough and Napoleon. As 
President of the new republic, he showed himself as 
wise in administration as he had been brave and 
skillful in battle. Fisher Ames said, ^^"Washington's 
contribution to our country was great beyond count, 
but his contribution to humanity and civilization was 
much greater." 

But a man's true worth is determined not alone 
by the great things of his life, but by the little things 
as well; not so much by what is seen of him in public, 
as by what he is in private; not merely by the extra- 
ordinary powers he possesses, but also by his use of 
those powers; not by the service he commands, but 
by the service he renders. Woodrow "Wilson has given 
a fine insight into Washington's character in these 
words: ^^The soldierly young planter gave those who 
knew him best the impression of a singular restraint 
and self-command. They deemed him deeply passion- 
ate, and yet could never remember to have seen him 
in a passion. No doubt he had given way to bursts 
of passion often enough in camp, and upon the march, 
when inefficiency, disobedience or cowardice angered 
him hotly and of a sudden. There were stories to be 
heard of men who had reason to remember how terrible 
he could be in his wrath. But he had learned, in the 
very heat and discipline of such scenes, how he must 
curb and guard himself against surprise, and it was 
no doubt trials of self-command made in his youth 
that had given him the fine self-poise men noted in 
him now. ' ' 



GREATNESS IN LITTLE THINGS 45 

The light which Washington shed to bless the world 
afar was not a dim or flickering light within the 
circle of the home. Commanding others, he was always 
subject to the command of his good, bnt somewhat 
stern, mother. "Well known is the story of his abandon- 
ment of his plan to go to sea on a tobacco ship when 
he saw the distress his departure was bringing to his 
widowed mother. After the victory of Yorktown his 
first thought was of his mother, and his first errand a 
visit to Fredericksburg to pay her his tribute of affec- 
tion. The news of his arrival was announced by a 
servant who told her that ^'Marse George" had put 
up at the tavern. ^^Go, and tell George to come here 
instantly/' she commanded. And the son was not slow 
in coming. In 1873, when he had settled again at 
Mount Vernon, he made his last visit to his mother, 
who was then in her eighty-third year. When the son 
promised to come again as soon as public business 
could be disposed of, she said: '^You will see me no 
more. I shall not be long in this world. I trust God 
and am prepared for a better. But, go, George, and 
fulfill the high destiny w^hich Heaven appears to have 
assigned you. Go, my son, and may Heaven and your 
mother's blessing always be with you." 

Not less thoughtful and gracious was the great 
man to his wife and adopted children. Says his biog- 
rapher: ''Those who saw him at Mount Vernon in his 
later days thought him gentler with little children 
than Mrs. Washington even, and remembered how he 
had always shown a like love and tenderness for them, 
going oftentimes out of his way to warn them of dan- 
ger, with a kindly pat on the head when he saw them 
watching the soldiers in the war days. Now all at 
Mount Vernon looked forward to the evening. That 



46 SPECIAL SERMONS 

was the children's hour. He had written sweet Nellie 
Custis a careful letter of advice upon love matters, 
half grave, half playful, in the midst of the Presi- 
dency, when the troubles with England were beginning 
to darken; she had always found him a comrade, and 
had loved him with an intimacy few could know. Now 
she was to be married, to his own sister's son, and 
upon his birthday. She begged him to wear his 
'grand embroidered uniform'; but he shook his head 
and donned instead the worn buff and blue that had 
seen real campaigns. Then the delighted girl told him, 
with her arm about his neck, that she loved him better 
in that." 

The estimate of our hero is enhanced when we read 
that the doctrine of justice and kindness which 
breathes through all of his papers of state was prac- 
ticed in the conduct of his personal affairs. He urged 
• the Government to pension and reward the soldiers of 
the Revolution. Black pensioners, not a few, were 
maintained upon his own plantation. '* Bishop, his 
old body-servant, lived like a retired gentleman in his 
cottage, and Nelson, the good sorrel who had borne him 
so bravely in the field till Yorktown, now went for- 
ever unsaddled, free in his own pasture." 

Washington's greatness was evidenced, too, in his 
attention to the small details of life. He had the 
genius for taking infinite pains. '^He made careful 
copies of legal and mercantile papers and just as care- 
fully he studied the structure of his fowling-piece, 
the bridle for his colts, his saddle girth and the best 
ways of mounting his horse. In everything he did 
he showed the careful precision of the perfect marks- 
man." This habit of doing his best under all circum- 
stances and of looking upon nothing as little or trifling 



GREATNESS IN LITTLE THINGS 47 

became potent in making him the masterful man of 
his times. 

The deeds of Washington are not more admirable 
than the spirit which animated them. Early he had 
set before him Pallas 's gift: ' ^ Self -reverence, self- 
knowledge, feelf -control ; these three alone lead life to 
sovereign power. And because right is right, to fol- 
low right were wisdom in the scorn of consequence." 
When the second Continental Congress met, the air 
was vibrant with the expectation of war. Thither 
came Washington clad in his old regimental uniform, 
to signify that he was a soldier ready for duty. Be- 
fore this he had written his brother Augustine: *^It 
is my full intention to devote my life and fortune in 
the cause we are engaged in, if needful." 

Few public men ever had to encounter such op- 
position, misrepresentation and calumny as assailed 
him. Yet none of these things moved him. ^'I am 
gliding down the stream of life," he writes, ^'and 
wish that my remaining days may be undisturbed and 
tranquil; and, conscious of my integrity, I would will- 
ingly hope that nothing would occur tending to give 
me anxiety; but should anything present itself in 
this or any other problem, I shall never undertake the 
painful task of recrimination, nor do I know that I 
should ever enter upon my justification. My temper 
leads me to peace and harmony with all men, and it 
is peculiarly my wish to avoid any feuds or dissen- 
sions with those who are embarked in the same great 
national interests with myself, as every difference of 
this kind must in its consequences be very injurious. 

When the suggestion was made that he be crowned 
king and thus end the unhappy state into which the 



48 SPECIAL SERMONS 

country had fallen, he spnrned the offer with stinging 
rebuke: '^I am much at loss to conceive what part of 
my conduct could have given encouragement to an 
address which to me seems big with the greatest mis- 
chief that can befall my country/' 

But is not the very greatness of Washington dis- 
couraging? We who would follow him do not possess 
his talents nor do we have his opportunities. But 
while we may not mount with him to the peaks of 
heroic achievement, we may still walk with him upon 
the plains of humble and faithful service. After all, 
are not the little things of life the important things? 
I would rather have a wife who cooks the things I 
like in the way I like them, gets the children off to 
school on time, and keeps the house in order, than to 
have one who is a genius, but impractical. I would 
rather work for an employer who controls his temper 
than for one who controls the vote of the city. I 
would rather have a church-member who is dependa- 
ble fifty-two Sundays in the year and the days be- 
tween, than to have one who is brilliant, but spasmodic 
and erratic. I enjoy the light of a sky-rocket on an 
occasional celebration, but for constancy I prefer a 
kerosene lamp or even a tallow candle. The wise 
Creator made one Niagara do for a whole continent. 
It would be very inconvenient to have such a cata- 
ract on every farm. Better are the brooks that water 
the fields and sing their way to the sea. 

The favorite geyser in Yellowstone Park is *^01d 
Faithful. '^ '^The Monarch,'' '^The Wonderful," 
''The Lioness," are more spectacular, but are uncer- 
tain. The play of ''Old Faithful" can be calculated 
to the minute. In the congregation the pastor's fa- 
vorite is not Elder Monarch nor Deacon Wonderful 



GREATNESS IN LITTLE THINGS 49 

nor Sister Lioness, but Brother Faithful. The best 
work in the world is done, not by people of uncommon 
ability, but by people of uncommon faithfulness. All 
honor to the military genius of Washington, but the 
Eevolutionary War was won as well by the patient 
militia who watched at Dorchester Heights, shivered 
at Valley Forge, and tramped the weary miles to 
Yorktown. 

We may not, like Washington, win a great war 
and save a nation, but we can learn to rule our spirit. 
Our passions are incipient virtues. When brought un- 
der control they minister to life. As Fuller says: 
''Anger is one of the sinews of the soul; he that lacks 
it hath a maimed mind.'' It is a sad commentary 
upon our human nature that the possession of this 
''sinew of the souF' is regarded as an element of 
weakness rather than of strength. When a man says, 
"My knife has temper,'' he is envied; when he says, 
"My wife has temper," he is pitied. George Matheson 
confesses, "There are times when I do well to be an- 
gry, but I have mistaken the times." Aristotle de- 
clares, "Men are angry on wrong grounds, or with 
the wrong people, or in a wrong way, or for too long 
a time." The mastery of passion is a harder fight 
for some than for others. When Stephen H. Tyng 
was rebuked by a young man for losing his temper, 
he replied, "Young man, I control more temper in 
fifteen minutes than you ever will in a lifetime." 

Seeing the restraint of an old Quaker woman under 
great provocation, a niece said to her, "Auntie, I 
should think you would be boiling." "I am boiling, 
my dear," she answered, "but without steam." "He 
that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and 
he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." 



50 SPECIAL SERMONS 

A man is rising to true greatness when lie finds 
that his life is ruled by love instead of passion. And 
there is no better field for the exercise of this grace 
than the home. It is in the home that the seamy side 
of life is revealed. If wood could talk, what tales the 
kicked chairs and slammed doors might tell on us. 
The home may not be beautiful like Mount Vernon, 
but it may be made the abode of love — ^love that is 
courtesy in little things, love that beareth all things, 
love that never fails. 

But the love that flies no farther than one's own 
home or even one's own country is a feeble and broken- 
winged affection. There are many cursed with what 
Emerson calls ''the township mind." Preachers even, 
whose concern reaches no farther than the world they 
survey from the top of their church-tower. No lesson 
of the past few years has come more forcibly than 
that we can no longer live in isolation, but are citi- 
zens of the world. As Mr. Glenn Frank said in the 
Century Magazine: ''We have heard of a shot fired in 
New England and heard around the world. To-day 
almost any act, vote or policy in government or in- 
dustry registers an effect across the continent, affects 
the lives and fortunes of men and women in the 
Orient, or gives concern to foreign office or bourse in 
half a dozen European capitals." Never was the ad- 
vice of "Washington's Farewell Address more pertinent 
than at present: "Observe good faith and justice to- 
ward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with 
all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct, and 
can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? 
It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no 
distant day, a great nation, to give to mankind the 
magnanimous and novel example of a people always 



GREATNESS IN LITTLE THINGS 51 

guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who 
can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the 
fruits of such a plan would richly repay any tem- 
porary advantages which might be lost by a steady 
adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not 
connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its 
virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by 
every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! 
is it rendered impossible by its vices?" 

Separation in time does not impair unity of ser- 
vice. The artisans who put on the capstone of the 
Cologne Cathedral were coworkers with those who, 
fifteen hundred years before, laid the foundation 
stones. We are the compatriots of Washington when 
we do all in our power to realize his ideals, when we 
seek by voice and influence to promote the righteous- 
ness that alone exalts a nation and put down the sin 
which ever brings reproach. 

Nor shall we lose our reward. Our names may not 
be writ large in history. No monument may mark our 
last resting-place. But the righteous Judge will not 
forget us. He declares there is to be a reversal of 
human judgment. The last will be first and the first 
last. The private will march in ahead of the general, 
the servant will have a higher seat than the master, 
the subject will have a richer crown than the king. 
Honors denied now will be given then. The victorious 
captain who led the charge has received his reward; 
but the high private in the rear rank, who marched 
and fought, marked time and did sentinel duty, has 
his reward waiting. 

In the city of Washington, opposite the Bureau of 
Engraving and Printing, for many years stood a 
low, unsightly building of the Agricultural Department 



52 SPECIAL SERMONS 

which has figured more in the development of the 
wealth of the nation than the structure across the 
way where Uncle Sam's money is printed. In this 
building one day there was received from a corre- 
spondent in South America a clipping from an orange- 
tree, whose fruit was declared to be deliciously sweet 
and well flavored. The slip was grafted, and in the 
course of experiment the navel or seedless orango was 
developed. The scientists of the Agricultural Depart- 
ment thought it was a freak, but the type persisted. 
Now the fruit may be found on nearly every table 
of the country and has added hundreds of millions 
to the wealth of the producers. In the meantime the 
letter from the lady who sent the clipping was lost 
and her identity has never been revealed. Perhaps she 
lies in some Southern grave, and above her the green 
leaves wave in the sunlight and upon her grave the 
sweet orange blossoms fall, but she sleeps on uncon- 
scious of what she has wrought. 

So, amid the quiet, nameless workers of the world, 
bending over the sick, soothing the sorrowing, lifting 
up the fallen, are the real heroes and heroines who will 
some day be identified by the King on the throne, to 
whom He will say: '^Because you were faithful in the 
little things, I will make you rulers over the great 
things. Enter into tb^ joy of your Lord/' 



-rjrAEEY J). SMITH was 'born at Hamiltcm, Mo., Jem. 2$, 
JlI 1866, He studied in the University of Misso^ari, and later 
in the Kansas State University. He was graduated from the 
latter in 1887 with the degree of A.B^ Later still he received 
the degree of AM. from Transylvania College, and the degree of 
B.D. from Yale Divinity School. He has been minister of the 
following chmrches of Christ m succession: Olathe, Kan.; West 
Side, Kansas City, Mo.; EureTca Springs, Arlc.; Marshall, Mo.; 
Ninth Street Church, HoplcinsviUe, Ky.; Central Church, Dallas, 
Tex., and the University Place Church, Enid, OTcla. 

Mr. Smith was for n time a teacher of the Bible and evidences 
of Christianity in McLean College, Hoplcinsville, Ky., and is now 
professor of practical theology in Phillips University, Enid, OTcla. 



53 



Missionary Day Sermon 

OUTLINE 

The Divine EadicaL 

I. The Law of Greatness for the Church. 

n. The Law of Help for Mankind. 

** Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." 



54 



THE PROGRAM OF JESUS 

Missionary Day Sermon by Harry D. Smith 

Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. 

—Matt. 28: 19. 

The Divine Radical 

NOTHING so utterly, perfectly, daringly radical 
as this program was ever thought of by any 
other leader of men. This is no plan embracing such 
superficialities as boundaries of states, laws on statute- 
books, national constitutions, sacrifices offered on ma- 
terial altars, or orders or times and places of worship. 
Here is a divine authority which intends by teaching 
to go down into the nethermost springs of being and 
purify and regulate their flow. Jesus proposes to be 
Master, not of the bodies and outward acts of men, 
but of their thoughts and purposes. That is. He pro- 
poses to govern them according to His will with their 
joyful consent. In comparison with this plan of Jesus 
the Bolshevisms, socialisms, anarchisms, and whatever 
other radicalisms there may be in our modern world, 
are only halting, stammering suggestions of revolution. 
This program is not of merely academic interest 
to us. We who constitute the church of Christ in 
this generation of the twentieth century are the only 
living successors of the apostles. And we have suc- 
ceeded to their task of restoring a wounded and broken 
race to wholeness and power. They did much. The 
church has done much. But not all is done. All is 

55 



56 SPECIAL SERMONS 

never done. No generation can be so Christianized 
that its successor will not require to be Christianized. 
The task of the reconstruction of the world appears 
afresh, to one who has eyes to see, in every birth of a 
human babe. 

The old task, then, grown greatly new in the light 
of our time, belongs to us. How shall we regard it? 
As a heavy burden? Yes. It is the heaviest ever laid 
upon human shoulders. As involving drudgery? 
Yes. It calls for endless toil, often where no human 
eye beholds. As costing sacrifice? Yes. It is stained 
with blood of heroes and can only be greatly for- 
warded by such as know how to die for it. The cross 
is its symbol still. 

' ' By the light of burning heretics 
Christ's bleeding feet I track, 
Toiling up new Calvaries ever 

With the cross that turns not back." 

But can no word of cheer be said of this program? 

I. The Law of Greatness for the Church 

Perhaps nothing, which can at all be said of the 
task set the church in the great commission, is 
worthier to be said than this: It is the law of church- 
ly life and vigor, the indispensable pre-condition of 
churchly power. The burden, the drudgery, the sacri- 
fice of it are an altar stair 'Hhat slopes through dark- 
ness up to Grod.'' Blessed are they that have the 
will to mount these rugged steps! Very miserable are 
they who turn from them! For the great commission 
is the charter of the church. All duty and privilege 
belonging to the church are explicitly or implicitly in- 
cluded in it. Whatever right the church has to be is 



THE PROGEAM OF JESUS 57 

connected with the enterprise it proposes and enjoins. 
That is, the church as conceived of by her founder 
has a single function, which function is to make the 
race of men Christian. So long, then, as the church 
is busy with this matter, she lives up to her Master's 
thought of her. Whenever she forsakes or forgets this, 
she renounces or neglects that which alone can make 
and keep her the church. Her cordial adhesion to this 
means that Christ is with her, that she lives, thrives 
and conquers. On the other hand, her lax hold upon 
this means that she is loosely bound to Christ, that 
she languishes, perhaps dies, and certainly is tri- 
umphed over. 

The spirit of evangelism is a magnet which attracts 
every kind of resource. It attracts wealth. The very 
magnitude of its ideals and proposals entices sane 
possessors of property, while the deep tenderness of 
its compassion compels with the noblest force to sub- 
stantial generosity, all persons of wealth whom it 
touches. That such generosity is not more common 
among persons of property is not wholly their fault. 
"When, in her history, has the church as a whole been 
asked with passion and skill for the means to evangelize 
the world? Never. And yet, she has given now and 
again vast sums for those objects which have enam- 
ored her leaders. Would she, properly informed, give 
less to the supreme object — the all-inclusive purpose — 
which Jesus put before her? It is a chief infidelity 
of her ministers that they so generally believe that 
she would. They trust more in secondary and selfish 
motives than in the primary and unselfish one. They 
lack the daring of faith which risks all on an appeal 
to the noblest motive. Is our worldly wisdom better 



58 SPECIAL SERMONS 

than Jesus' divine wisdom? Who will say so? The 
church waits for another great restorer — for him who 
shall bring her leaders to give to the Christian con- 
quest of the world the central place which Jesus Him- 
self gave to it. 

The spirit of evangelism woos and fructifies intel- 
lect not less powerfully than it does property. It is, 
in fact, the very genius of teaching and schools. 
''Make disciples'' — that is its first word. It counsels 
conquest by means of ideas. ''Teaching them" — that 
is its crowning conception of human duty. It proposes 
to hold and develop what it conquers, also, by means 
of ideas. It abandons the clumsy weapons and instru- 
ments of the barbarous conquerors and rulers with 
whom the world is long and sadly familiar. It pro- 
poses to pluck down and blast out the evil that is 
among men with the nobler, yet more terrible, power 
of thought. It is at one with the finest philosophies 
of all tim.es in reposing all its hopes upon spiritual 
foundations. 

It challenges the imagination with notable success. 
The universality of its proposed empire is a feature 
of the great commission about which great souls must 
forever linger fascinated. And through its appeal to 
the will, the spirit of evangelism has made the choic- 
est heroes of the best ages of the world. 

It is not strange that this spirit has quickened 
and still quickens mightily the minds of those into 
whom it enters. It entered into Simon the fisherman, 
and he became, in one respect at least, the chief min- 
ister of the foremost religion of mankind. It entered 
into Saul the Pharisee, and he became the mightiest 
thinker of the church. It entered into Francis, the 
noble of Assisi, and he became one of the revered 



THE PROGRAM OF JESUS 59 

teachers of our whole race. It entered into Carey the 
cobbler, and he became schoolmaster to the peoples 
of India. It entered into Livingstone, the weaver's 
son, and he became one of the most variously learned 
and deeply thoughtful men of his age. It entered into 
Dwight L. Moody, an illiterate and rather slow- 
minded man, and he became a world-famous speaker, 
aji organizer of schools and a stimulating friend of 
Christian teaching in many lands. 

But why continue to speak of the speU which the 
missionary spirit casts upon men and women one by 
one? It does the same with churches that open their 
doors to it. It is not a century ago that the Baptist 
people in the United States were a poor, ill-educated 
and subordinate group. They divided on the subject 
of missions. And this resulted. After less than twen- 
ty years from that division the unmissionary portion 
of them had not grown in any way. During another 
forty years they not only did not grow, but they shrank 
in numbers, material wealth, intellectual influence, 
spiritual force. They continue to shrink until now. 
But a feeble trace of the Primitive Baptist Church 
can be found on our soil. But the missionary group 
within twenty years had increased by some 900 per 
cent. In the next forty years they increased by some 
300 per cent. They continue to grow. But not in 
numbers only. They are a people of schools, an edu- 
cated ministry and great general intelligence. Most 
of all, they have a spiritual vigor that thrills to the 
ends of the earth. Men wait with eagerness to know 
what the Missionary Baptist Church does and intends 
in many and widely distant places throughout the 
world. Obeying Christ about missions has made her 



60 SPECIAL SERMONS 

great, and the same thing is making other bodies of 
Christians great. 

This, then, is the law of churchly power. Obey 
the great commission and become mighty. Neglect the 
great commission and die. 

II. The Law of Help for Mankind 

This task laid upon the church is Christ's answer 
to the need of mankind. Our burdening is the race's 
blessing. As such it ought to be beautiful and win- 
some to us. Hardship that will heal the world we 
ought to be happy to bear, for its wounds are deep 
and gaping, and its tears terrible. The tragedy of 
human life no man, were he a thousand Shakespeares, 
could tell in a thousand years. **And there is none 
other name given under heaven or among men whereby 
we must be saved" but that of Jesus. He is our one 
hope for humanity. We have no other. 

And this program of His in the Great Commission 
is His way of giving Himself to mankind. As far 
as we know. He has no other way. He seems to rest 
all upon His church. "When it fails so does He. It 
is His body. He has no feet but ours with which to 
go, no hands but ours with which to heal, no tongue 
but ours with which to teach. How awful is the 
weight we bear! We are the true Atlas. The church 
bears up the world on her shoulders toward the face 
of God. Where she is strong and straight and tall, 
the world will be lifted into light and its peoples will 
laugh and sing. 

What the world needs we know. It is no new need 
that makes its tragedy. The analysis of its need which 
we make now would have been valid twenty centuries 
ago. What is this need? 



THE PROGRAM OF JESUS 61 

It is in part physical. Millions are homeless, hun- 
gry and sick. Millions have always been so. Why? 
Is there not room enough on the earth? Is there not 
wood and stone enough, and clay for making bricks 
enough, to house human beings? Oh, yes. Then, why 
are millions homeless? There is just one reason. 
There never has been any other. It is because other 
millions are selfish and take for themselves the wood, 
the stone and the land. And this also is why mil- 
lions are always hungry. The earth yields enough 
and to spare, or would do so but for the barbarous and 
bestial selfishness of men. And this, also, is why many 
millions are, and always have been, sick. Because they 
are homeless or ill fed or overworked, or all of these, 
they have fallen ill and died in their childhood, in their 
youth, in their maturity; died faster than the great 
war slew them. India has lost more people by famine 
and resultant disease within a single recent year than 
the total toll of life taken by the battlefields of the 
world from August 1, 1914, to November 11, 1918. 
Selfishness makes of a lovely world a physical hell for 
half the race. 

The need of the world is in part intellectual, the 
need to know. Ignorance is a colossal and ruthless 
slayer. It slays bodies. It slays hope. It slays peace. 
It leaves a swamp at a city's edge, and the people die 
of malaria. It neglects the water supply, and the 
people die of typhoid fever. It neglects the milk 
supply, and babies die by thousands. It neglects food 
inspection, ventilation, isolation of those with conta- 
gious diseases, surgery and nursing, and so puts to 
death yearly an uncounted multitude. It leaves folk 
with ancient and horrifying superstitions, and so slays 
their peace. It acquiesces in outworn and oppressive 



62 SPECIAL SERMONS 

social systems, and so puts hope to death in tens of 
millions of human breasts. It educates no children in 
useful things, and so prepares no to-morrow, but only 
a continuance of a hateful to-day. 

Is there no knowledge? Oh, yes, libraries of mil- 
lions of volumes contain treasures beyond all compu- 
tation of all kinds of knowledge. Why, then, is igno- 
rance left to slaughter in this frightful way? It is 
because men are selfish with knowledge as they are 
with wood and stone and land. They ^do not always, 
nor often indeed, deliberately lock it away from others. 
They merely do not send it to them and teach them. 

What does Mexico need ? Among other things, teach- 
ing in science and the industrial ^^s. And Africa and 
practically all the East? Th6 same thing. How to 
build a house and how M keep it; how to make a 
garden; how to build -^oads; how to farm; how to 
market; somethii^g of how to govern themselves; these 
things and the like they need to be taught. 

Does some one raise a question of men and women 
to teach? We enrolled an army of five millions to fight 
against Germany. A half-million competent teachers 
scattered among belated peoples would in great part 
heal the hurt of gross ignorance throughout the world 
in a single generatioi^. It was Victor Hugo who de- 
clared that ^^the only army a truly civilized world 
would contain is an army of schoolmasters. ' ' Great 
Britain, Canada and the United States alone should 
count it a great joy and a high- honor-'to'^aise and 
equip such an army to march against gross ignorance 
in every land, and fight with it until it lies dead at 
the feet of knowledge. 

But the supreme need of the world is a moral one. 
The most appalling homelessness is to be away from 



THE PROGRAM OF JESUS 63 

the right; that is, from God. The most gnawing 
hunger is the hunger for God. The most terrible sick- 
ness is sin; that is, rebellion against God. The most 
abysmal ignorance is not to know God. And all men 
have been or are thus homeless, hungry, sick and igno- 
rant. ''All men have sinned and come short of the 
glory of God." *' There is none good, no, not one.'' 
*'A11 we like sheep have gone astray.'' And this 
moral need underlies and nourishes all other forms of 
human need. This we have already seen. Selfishness, 
which is only sin with another name, makes homeless- 
ness, unsatisfied hunger, needless sickness, and most all 
havoc, immediately due to ignorance. What then? 

"We must attack selfishness. We must make man- 
kind kind. We must throttle the beast and free the 
angel in us. How? Through Christ. He mastered 
selfishness in His own soul. He has empowered others 
to fight a winning war with it in their souls. His 
power is not spent. He offers it to yet others. He 
offers it to all. He offers it upon the sim^plest terms. 
He offers it upon the sole condition that one put him- 
self in position to receive it by trusting Him. To love, 
honor and worship Him is to love, honor and worship 
the embodiment of unselfishness. Thus to win men and 
women everywhere to Him is to bring them to ''the 
hate of hate, the scorn of scorn and the love of love." 

''Behold, to Obey Is Better than Sacrifice" 

The church must take the program of Jesus afresh 
into her heart. It is a stupendous program. When it 
is accepted it will make her mighty, and a needy world 
will be enriched. 

Abu Taher, so runs an ancient tale, marched at the 
head of five hundred followers against Bagdad, 



64 SPECIAL SERMONS 

strongly walled and garrisoned with thirty thousand 
men. When he was within a few miles of the city he 
was met by a messenger from the prince reigning there. 
The messenger, in the name of his master, bade him lay 
down his arms where he was, and promised him, on 
condition of his obedience, full pardon for himself and 
all his band. If he should advance farther, the mes- 
senger said, his master would crush his force as though 
it were a fly beneath his hand. And when Abu did not 
instantly answer the message the man who brought it 
asked: ''What answer shall I give my master?'' Then 
Abu said to one of his men, ''Thrust a dagger into 
your heart;" to another, "Dash yourself down from 
the precipice there;'' and to a third, "Drown yourself 
in the river." What he commanded was done without 
question or delay. "Now," said Abu to the messenger, 
"go tell your master what you have seen, and that 
before night I will chain his generals with my dogs." 
And he did, for he had followers who knew how to 
obey. No matter whether the story be in all respects 
true or not, its lesson is true. The army that obeys its 
general is thereby more apt to conquer its enemies. A 
missionary once inquired of the Duke of Wellington 
whether he thought we should be able to take India for 
Christ. That iron soldier answered, "Show me your 
marching orders." Brethren, here are our marching 
orders, here in the Great Commission. Shall we obey? 



y" B. 0, SMITE was lorn Dee. 27, 1857, at Waynesville, War- 
m ren County, 0., and received Ms college education at Butler 
University, Indianapolis, Ind., where he received the B.A. degree. 
The degree of LL.D. was given by the college of which Bishop 
Fallows, Chicago, was director. 

Ee was minister of the Edinhurg {Ind.) Church of Christ 
for three years; State evangelist and corresponding secretary of 
Indiana Christian Missionary Society thirteen years; minister of 
the Valparaiso (Ind.) Church, two pastorates, thi/rteen years; 
OMahoma City, OMa., seven years. Was also minister of the 
First Church, Little Boclc, ArTc., and the Metropolitan Churchy 
Chicago, Ills., tivo pastorates, eight years, and is now in charge 
of the church at Fittslurg, Kan., and director in American and 
Foreign Christian Missionary Societies. 

Mr. Smith has lectured extensively, and held many evangelistic 
meetings throughout the country. 



66 



Decision Day Sermon 

OUTLINE 



I. Appeal to Saint and Sinner. 

II. Tlie Power of Clioice. 

1. Clioice is above heredity. 

2. Clioice is above environment. 

III. What Shall I Answer aod? 

1. Excuses. 

IV. Our Influence. 

V. The Danger of Delay. 



66 



CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM 
YE WILL SERVE 

Decision Day Sermon by J. H. O. Smith 

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, lie will 
keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come 
unto him, and make our abode with him. — John 14: 23. 

Behold, I stand at the door and knock: If any man hear my 
voice and open the door^ I will come in to him, and will sup with 
him, and he with me. — ^Eev. 3: 20. 

Now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salva- 
tion.— 2 Cor. 6 : 2. 

SIX hundred and eighty times the word ''come'' 
occurs in the Bible. Each ''come" is a prayer 
from God to man. Over and over again God repeats 
His invitation, and times without number multitudes 
have stood in the valley of decision. 

On a great decision day in Israel one man turned 
the tide toward God and right. Joshua was a man of 
mighty deeds and few words. "When he did speak he 
made an appeal and a statement that thrilled the 
nation like the blast of a trumpet. '' Choose you this 
day whom ye will serve ; whether the gods which your 
fathers served that were beyond the river, or the gods 
of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for 
me and my house we will serve the Lord." And the 
people said: "We also will serve " Jehovah, for he is 
our God." Men of decision live in history and live 
in the hearts of men. 

67 



68 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Elijah at Mt. Carmel challenged the multitude, 
'^How long go ye limping between the two sides? If 
Jehovah be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow 
him.'' The echoes of the battle-cry of these men will 
reverberate until the 

* * Stars grow old, 
The sun grows cold, 
And the leaves of the judgment book unfold." 

* * Once to every man and nation 

Comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of truth with falsehood, 

For the good or evil side. 
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, 

Offers each the bloom or blight. 
And the choice goes by forever 

Twixt that darkness and that light. ' ' 

Each of us must decide for himself whether he will 
accept or reject Christ's invitation to follow Him into 
the exalted service of God and our fellow-men. 

Whatever may be said by great men about conver- 
sion and the turning-points in life, we all do one of two 
things: We either promise God that with His help we 
will live as He would have us live, or we defy our 
Saviour and say to Him, ^*We will not have you to 
reign over us. ' ^ The minister, the officers, the members 
of the church, the sinner, all are answering Christ's 
invitation in one of these ways. 

Oh, the tragedy of the might-have-beens in the 
church of God! There are professing Christians who 
would say, were they to tell the truth, 

''I live for myself, I think for myself, 
For myself and none beside; 
Just as if Jesus had never lived, 
As if He had never died." 



CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY 69 

You spend your time making a living instead of making 
a life, and some day you will cross the dead-line of 
the soul, and God will say of you as He said of 
Ephraim, ^'He is joined to his idols, let him alone.'' 

The sun and stars move in exact obedience to the 
will of God. They have no other choice. But you can 
look God in the face and say, ''I will,'' or ''I will 
not." You can answer with the ^^yes" of heaven or 
the ''no" of hell, but do not forget that it must be 
the one or the other. 

Some of us are like the little girl who, when asked 
which she would rather be, the rich man or Lazarus, 
replied : ' ' I would rather be the rich man in this world 
and Lazarus in the next." Poor child! I wonder if 
she learned that from her father. The rich man chose 
riches, fine raiment and sumptuous living. What he 
had, what he ate and what he wore was all there was 
of him. When he died there were no pockets in his 
shroud, he could not take his riches with him. He had 
closed the skylight and taken up his abode in the 
basement. A man of great wealth died in New York, 
and some one, when asked what he left, replied: ''He 
left it all." My friends, you can not serve God and 
mammon. This decision day is the time to take stock 
of yourselves, and go through your life purposes with 
relentless inquisition. 

Christ said to the church at Sardis, "Thou hast a 
name that thou livest, and thou art dead." "She that 
giveth herself to pleasure is dead while she liveth." 
A man need not shoot himself to commit suicide. Ask 
those of the dead who lived only to eat, drink, dress, 
dance and accumulate wealth, to lift the turf from 
their moldering bones and stand forth as witnesses. 
They will say, "God told the truth when He called 



70 SPECIAL SERMONS 

the m^n a fool who thought a soul could be satisfied 
with the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and 
the vainglory of life/' But some church-members 
would not be persuaded to give up their worldly life 
though one should rise from the dead. *'If we sin 
wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of 
the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, 
but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a 
fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries/' 
'^The time is come for judgment to begin at the house 
of God." ^'And if the righteous is scarcely saved, 
where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" ''To-day 
if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts." 

''There is a time, we know not when, 
A point, we know not whore. 
Which marks the destiny of men 
To glory or despair. 

''There is a line by us unseen 
That crosses every path. 
The hidden boundary between 
God's patience and His wrath. '* 

''He that is not with me is against me," said Jesus. 
''The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God 
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord," said Paul. 
"How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salva 
tion?" It is for you to decide now. God says, "Now." 
The tempter says, "Not now." Will you say "now" 
with God, or "not now" with the enemy of your soul? 
Choice is above Jieredity. Scientists tell us that 
heredity is a tremendous power in the world. We 
inherit tendencies from our ancestors which too often 
control our lives. "The fathers have eaten sour 
grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge/' 



CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY 71 

A young man in Chicago sowed his wild oats. 
Later he married a lovely girl. A deformed boy came 
into their home. They took him to a celebrated phy- 
sician in Europe, who straightened the limbs, and 
restored the boy to health. He became a drunkard 
and later killed his father and mother. All three 
reaped a harvest of death from the early dissolute life 
of the father. The devil has a mortgage on many 
children when they are born. The iniquity of the 
fathers is visited upon the children to the third and 
fourth generation. 

But, I say, choice is above heredity. If we inherit 
a bad temper, it is not necessary to cultivate it, but 
with the help of God it can be controlled. If we have 
inherited a thirst for drink, we need not become drunk- 
ards. If we have a tendency to accumulate money, it 
is not necessary to enter the ranks of profiteers or 
short-loan sharks. Christ recognized the tremendous 
power of heredity, and provided that we may be born 
again. The Saviour said to Nicodemus, '^Ye must be 
bom anew.'^ Nicodemus was descended from a race 
of illustrious ancestors, who were proud of their blood. 
'*We are Abraham's children." '^"We were bom 
free." Nicodemus belonged to the aristocracy of his 
race and time, but a new heredity was necessary for 
even the proudest Jew. Christ is always scientific ; that 
is, He knows what is in man, and He knows that blue 
blood and family pride alone can not save, and that 
all alike must be born from above. Then God is our 
Father and His heredity is perfect. 

Each for himself must decide whether or not he 
will be bom into the family of God. Scientists agree 
that character is not hereditary. Choice determines 
character and character determines destiny. 



72 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Choice is above environment. Sociologists tell us 
that if we know the heredity and environment of an 
individual, we can determine his present and future 
character. It is said that an angel from heaven would 
not be proof against bad company. ^^Evil communica- 
tions corrupt good manners.'' Good parents are care- 
ful about the associates of their children. The Chris- 
tian father and mother keep their children in the Bible 
school, and in various services of the church, and see 
to it that they are in the company of those who are 
learning lessons that Christ alone can teach. How 
often ambitious parents choose as associates for their 
children the '^exclusive set," where dancing to jazz 
music in low-and-behold gowns is the chief accomplish- 
ment, and where the *^ turkey trot" and '^ bunny hug," 
and other beastly imitations of beast or fowl, constitute 
the ''grace-producing and refining uplift" of ''high 
society. ' ' 

In Job we have this language: "What then shall I 
do when God riseth up? And when he visiteth, what 
shall I answer him?" And Paul says: "We shall all 
stand before the judgment-seat of God. For it is 
written. As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee 
shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God." 

What will we answer God on that day? If you are 
a child, will you say, "I am not old enough"? At 
twelve years of age Jesus said, ' ' Know ye not that I 
must be about my Father's business?'^ 

Or will you say, "There are mysteries in the Bible 
that I do not understand"? The Bible will be full of 
things you do not understand so long as you do not 
live according to those that you do understand. "And 
even if our gospel be veiled, it is veiled in them that 
perish: whom the god of this world hath blinded." . 



CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY 73 

Or will you say, ^' There are so many denomina- 
tions, teaching so many ways of salvation, that I do 
not know what to do to be saved"? The New Testa- 
ment knows nothing about denominationalism. Christ 
prayed that His followers might be one, as He and 
His Father are one, that the world might believe. 
Before you is the open Bible. In a few hours you 
can read the life of our Lord in the four Gospels, 
'^ written that you might believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God: and that believing you might 
have life through his name." The Acts of the Apostles 
is a book of conversions telling just what the sinner 
must do to be saved. "When you stand before God you 
can not say that the Saviour and the inspired apostles 
did not make plain the conditions of salvation. 

Or will you answer God that hypocrites in the 
church caused your neglect? I wonder! Then I pre- 
sume you would refuse to be a soldier in a great cause 
if cowards happened to enlist? You would refuse to 
ride in safety from a wrecked vessel if hypocrites 
sought to escape in the same life-boat. 

Will you answer that you did not obey the gospel 
because you were unworthy ? Our Saviour came to save 
sinners. He came to save the unworthy, to seek and to 
save the lost. 

Will you say, ^'I could not believe that Jesus is 
the Son of God"? ''He that believeth on the Son of 
God hath the witness in him: he that believeth not 
God hath made him a liar ; because he hath not believed 
in the witness that God hath borne concerning his 
Son." 

Will you say you had not time enough to consider 
these great questions ? How long do you require to decide 
whether you will do right or wrong? be good or bad? 



74 SPECIAL SERMONS 

accept or refuse God's invitation? serve God or the 
devil? go to heaven or to hell? 

Will you write out your decision, look at it intently, 
and say, '^I will stand by it in the day of judgment"? 

Will you say to the Saviour as Felix said, ''Go thy 
way for this time: at a more convenient season I will 
call for thee"? That convenient season never came. 
To-morrow is the day on which the idle man promises 
to work, the day on which the fool declares that he 
will repent. ''To-morrow! That phantom of days ! That 
frail ghost forever disembodied! Unwilling fingers 
point to thee. Thirsty souls will follow thee like the 
mirage of the desert, until they fall upon the burning 
sands of the wasted day." Every day's delay is one 
more for which to repent, and one less in which to 
work for God. Slighted opportunities never return. 
The road of by and by leads to the house of never. 

We all have influence, even the humblest of us, and 
none can tell how far-reaching it may be. Some of the 
most outstanding Christian men and women of the 
world have been led to Christ directly or indirectly by 
some obscure person of whom the world has never 
heard. In Chicago, one Sunday morning, a beautiful, 
eight-year-old girl came forward, and later brought her 
father and mother. More than twenty others were led 
to Christ by those parents during the meeting. 

I was holding a meeting in our old home church. 
A little boy, the only child of parents who were not 
Christians, made the good confession. That night his 
father and mother heard his voice after they thought 
he was asleep. They listened. He was praying for 
them that they might become Christians. Finally the 
mother said, "Abner, what shall we do about it?" 
He replied, "Well answer his prayer at the first 



CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY 75 

opportunity. " The next night they confessed their 
faith in Christ and became a power for good in that 
community. If a child can exercise so much influ- 
ence, what can the rest of us accomplish? 

The greatest tragedy is not that men drink or 
gamble or do a thousand things that are wrong, but 
that they are leaving unlived the life that God in- 
tended them to live and leaving undone the work He 
has for them to do. Sin is the most terrible thing 
in this world of men, women and children, but Jesus 
made the conditions of salvation so plain that all can 
understand. Read the offer of salvation in Christ's 
''Great Commission '^ (Matt 28:19, 20; Mark 16:16; 
Luke 24 : 45-47 ; John 20 : 21-23) . God saves. We ac- 
cept by believing in the Son of God, repenting of our 
sins, confessing Christ as Lord, and being baptized 
in obedience to Him. Upon complying with these 
terms, Christ promises forgiveness and the Holy Spirit 
as a gift. 

If you would be a Christian, go to work at it. If 
it is your full purpose to live a Christian life and 
reach heaven at last, God has arranged it so that you 
can not fail. Your heavenly Father would line up 
every angel in heaven around your soul, if necessary, 
to protect you while in the discharge of your duty. 
All the devils in hell can not defeat you if you com- 
mit your soul to the Saviour. All the angels in 
heaven can not save you unless you choose to be saved. 

There is fhe utmost danger in delay. I have a 
friend who was a soldier in the Civil War. He and 
his chum enlisted, and the night before they were to 
go away they attended a meeting in the church of 
which their families were members. When the invita- 
tion was given, my friend's chum said, ^^ George, let 



76 SPECIAL SERMONS 

us go forward and make the good confession and be 
baptized before we go away." He said, *'No, I want 
to be free/' In an awful battle George's chum fell. 
As my friend bent over his dying comrade, he caught 
these pitiful words, ''Oh, George, if I had only 
obeyed my Saviour!'' 

What a world of wonder is a human soul! A 
world created by God Himself with its oceans of emo- 
tion and tides of destiny urged on by winds from 
heaven or hell. When we listen to the voice of the 
Master of wind and wave, as He says, ''Peace, be 
still/' the stars of heaven are mirrored in blue tran- 
quility. But when we refuse to listen, the storms lash 
the billows to fury. The soul is a world with moun- 
tains of volcanic fire and laughing valleys of sweet 
content; selfish arctic regions wrapped in snow, and 
tropics of passion where sleep wild beasts of prey. 
It is a world of battlefields and graves, Gethsemanes, 
Calvaries and mountains of ascension. It is a world 
of sin and sorrow, life and death, war and worship, 
a world over which God and Satan wage unceasing 
and relentless warfare while it decides who shall con- 
quer. When this invitation closes, will the angels 
rejoice over your repentance and your firm resolve to 
put a heroic life into the service of God and human- 
ity, or will demons shout over a soul that has heard 
the invitation of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit 
and the church, and has answered "Not now"? 

The simple path of duty leads straight from your 
heart to the gates ajar. 

^ ^ Let youth in the beauty of bloom como, 
Let man in the pride of his noon come, 
Let age on the verge of the tomb come, 
Let none in their pride stay away.'' 



TT7' ILLIAM H, BOOK was horn at New Castle, Craig County, 
rw Va., July 4, 1863, and received his college education at 
Milligan College, Tenn, His ministry has heen spent as follows: 
With the church of Christ, Tulaski City, Va., six years; Clifton 
Forge, Va., five years; Martinsville, Va., five years, and Columbus, 
Ind., sixteen years, where he continues ut this writing. 

Mr. BooJc spent several years in evangelistic worTc, and from' 
tinne to time throughout his ministry has responded to calls for 



77 



Easter Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introduction. 

I, Tlie Eesuirection a Propliecy in the Old Testajnent. 

1. In tlie patriarclial dispensation. 

2. In tlie Jewish dispensation. 

(1) The Passover a type of Christ's death, 

(2) Pentecost a type of His resurrection. 

II. The Besurrection a Fact in the New Testament. 

1. Jesus taught the resurrection. 

2. Witnesses recorded the resurrection. 

3. Paul and the early Christians founded their faith 

upon the resurrection. 



78 



THE RESURRECTION 

Easter Sermon by W. H. Book 

But hath now been manifested by the appearing of our 
Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death^ and brought life and 
immortality to light through the gospel. — 2 Tim. 1: 10. 

HUNDREDS of years ago an old sage asked the 
question, ''If a man die, shall he live again?" 
Jesus answered this question by coming out from 
among the dead after he had been put to death on 
the cross. Until this demonstration the world knew 
but little of immortality. Only a gleam was seen now 
and then in shadow, type and prophecy. "We wonder 
what must have been the feelings of Adam and Eve 
as they looked into the face of a dead son! 

In the Patriarchal and the Jewish dispensations 
we have hints of the resurrection and of a life after 
death. One day a man, who had been in the habit of 
walking with God, took a long journey and followed 
Him into the unseen world. Enoch proved by this act 
that man's home is not in this world, but in the 
spiritual world where God dwells. He demonstrated 
that there are two worlds — the seen and the unseen. 

Abraham through Isaac taught the doctrine of death 
and the atonement in Jesus Christ, and he also taught 
the doctrine of life and the resurrection, for he believed 
that God would raise his dead son and give him back. 

One night one of God's sons slept in the open with 
his head resting upon the pillow of stone and he saw 

-79 



80 SPECIAL SERMONS 

angels ascending and descending the ladder that 
reached from earth to heaven. The fact of communi- 
cation between two worlds was established. 

In the Jewish dispensation Elijah, God's prophet, 
moved out from among the sons of the prophets, and 
in his chariot of fire drawn by fiery steeds, whose 
swiftness was greater than light, he took his flight 
into the spiritual realm. He gave us, in type, the 
resurrection of Christ, and, at the same time, taught 
the doctrine of life and immortality. Those who wit- 
nessed his glorious ascension must have felt that man 
shall live after death. 

Jonah in the body of the fish three days and nights 
was declared by Jesus to be a sign of his resurrection. 

The Passover is a type of the death of Christ and 
Pentecost is the type of His resurrection. It was then 
that the children of Israel brought the firstfruits of 
their labor and offered them to Jehovah. It was on 
the first day of the week, the Lord's Day, figuratively 
speaking. It represented a new dispensation and a 
new creation. Christ had much to say on this sub- 
ject, but it was hard for His disciples to understand. 
He symbolized His death. His burial and His resurrec- 
tion in His baptism. He placed in His church an in- 
stitution that we call the Lord's Supper, which sym- 
bolizes His death and His resurrection down through 
the ages. 

From the time that Peter confessed Christ at 
Ceesarea He began to show unto His disciples how that 
He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things 
of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be 
killed, and be raised the third day. Jerusalem, which 
was soon to witness His humiliation, must also witness 
His exaltation. 



THE RESURRECTION 81 

After He had come from among the dead He 
journeyed with two of His disciples and said nnto 
them: ^*0 foolish men, and slow of heart to believe 
in all that the prophets have spoken! Behooved it not 
the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into 
his glory? And beginning from Moses and from all 
the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scrip- 
tures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:25- 
27). Mark you, He was not a destructive critic, for 
He believed in Moses and all of the prophets, and all 
that the prophets had spoken. He further declared 
that all things, which had been written in the law of 
Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms, concerning 
Himself, must be fulfilled. His resurrection had been 
declared by the prophets, and their prophecies must be 
fulfilled if His Messiahship is to be established. God 
can not lie. His word is true. 

He made bold to say that He had the power to lay 
His life down and that He had the power to take it 
up again. Had He been only a man, He could not 
have made such claims. Had not Christ come forth 
from among the dead he would have been considered 
an impostor and His disciples would have deserted 
Him. His church would not have been established 
and His name would have been forgotten. 

When Christ stood in the presence of death He 
told the sisters of His friend Lazarus that he should 
rise again. Martha believed in the general resurrec- 
tion and at once declared: ^'I know that he shall rise 
again in the resurrection at the last day." It was 
then Jesus said: ^^I am the resurrection and the life; 
he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he 
live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall 
never die." 

6 



82 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Elijah was a type of life; Moses on the Mount of 
Transfiguration is a type of the resurrection, and both 
life and immortality have been brought to light 
through the resurrection of Christ. He shall become 
the resurrection unto all the righteous dead and the 
life unto all the righteous living who are found on 
the earth (''Whosoever liveth and believeth") when 
He comes. Listen to Paul's words of comfort spoken 
to the heartbroken members of the church at 
Thessalonica : 

*'For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will 
Grod bring with him. For this we say unto you by 
the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are 
left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise 
precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord 
himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with 
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
Grod; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we 
that are alive, that are left, shall together with them 
be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 
4:14-17). 

The fact of His resurrection was clearly established 
in the minds of His apostles. They were in position 
to know the truth and they were not deceived. John 
declares: ''That which was from the beginning, that 
which we have heard, that which we have seen with 
our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled 
concerning the Word of life (and the life was mani- 
fested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and de- 
clare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was 
with the Father, and was manifested unto us) ; that 
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you 



THE RESURRECTION 83 

also, that ye also may have fellowship with us; yea 
and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his 
Son Jesus Christ/' 

For forty days the great Teacher instructed His 
students in the spiritual things of His kingdom. 
This was the postgraduate period. For more than 
three years He had been with them in the flesh, a 
Jew, limited in His sphere of activity, but now He 
is the spiritual Christ with all power given unto Him, 
and He is making things plain which they did not 
understand when He taught them in the flesh. The 
Scriptures — Old Testament prophecies — ^have been ful- 
filled and now they understand. 

Peter denied Him only a few days ago because he 
did not understand. Now he can stand in the pres- 
ence of the mob and say: ^^Ye men of Israel, hear 
these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of 
God unto you by mighty works and wonders and 
signs which G-od did by him in the midst of you, 
even as ye yourselves know; him, being delivered up 
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, 
ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay: 
whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of 
death: because it was not possible that he should be 
holden of it. . . . Being therefore a prophet, and know- 
ing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the 
fruit of his loins he would set one upon his throne; 
he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of the 
Christ, that neither was he left unto Hades, nor did 
his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up, 
whereof we all are witnesses" (Acts 2:22-24, 30-32). 

Men who only a few days ago killed the Son of 
God are convinced and become the charter members 
of the church. It is here in the city of Jerusalem, 



84 SPECIAL SERMONS 

where our Lord was condemned to die, His kingdom 
is established. If Christ did not come forth from the 
grave, how can you account for the courage of His 
apostles, the conversion of His enemies and the found- 
ing of His kingdom? The kingdom could never have 
been founded upon a dead Christ. The preaching of 
a dead Christ could never have impressed His ene- 
mies. Peter preached a living Christ when he said: 
'^ Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, 
and having received of the Father the promise of the 
Holy Spirit, he hath poured forth this, which ye see 
and hear. Let all the house of Israel therefore know 
assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and 
Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified" (Acts 2: 33, 36). 
Those who had plunged the spear into the side of 
Jesus Christ now feel the sword of the Spirit as it 
pierces their own hearts, and cry out, not in ex- 
pressions of flattery and praise, but in groans and 
sobs, begging for mercy. They are ready to join with 
the disciples. They are willing to be baptized into 
the death of the crucified Christ. They are ready to 
fight with the wild beasts and to stand in jeopardy 
every hour, for they believe that Christ has con- 
quered death and the grave in His resurrection, and 
they are no longer afraid of the one who can kill the 
body, for they believe that the spirit will go to be 
with Jesus, who has become the firstfruits of the 
resurrection, they are ready, by their baptism, to be 
placed among the dead. (1 Cor. 15: 29.) 

When the apostles had been brought out of the 
prison into the presence of the council to meet the 
charge that they had filled Jerusalem with their doc- 
trine, they answered: ^^The God of our fathers raised 
up Jesus, whom ye slew, hanging him on a tree. Him 



THE RESURRECTION 85 

did God exalt with liis right hand to be a Prince and 
a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission 
of sins. And we are witnesses of these things; and 
so is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them 
that obey him'' (Acts 5:30-32). 

Jesus surely is alive. After Stephen had delivered 
that wonderful sermon, one that could not be an- 
swered by the enemies of Christ, they gnashed their 
teeth and determined to make an end of him and his 
doctrine. Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, 
looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory 
of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of 
God, and in his dying moments he declared that he 
saw the heavens opened, and the Son of man 
standing on the right hand of God. This statement 
was more than they could stand, and they rushed 
upon him and carried him out of the city and stoned 
him to death. Stephen died for his belief in the resur- 
rection of the Christ. 

There was a brilliant young lawyer who heard 
Stephen's words and who was blinded by prejudice. 
He held the clothes of the murderers and sanctioned 
Stephen's death, and, being mad with enthusiasm, 
started out to destroy the church of God. He 
entered into every house, and laid hold on men and 
women and committed them to prison. Not satisfied 
with seeing Stephen brutally murdered and the saints 
in Jerusalem placed behind prison-bars, he determined 
to go into the far-away cities in search of all who wor- 
shiped God in the name of Christ. He was honest in 
all that he did. He verily believed that he was doing 
God's will. One day he saw a light from heaven and 
heard this same Jesus speaking to him. This Jesus, who 
had been nailed to a Roman cross, who had gone down 



86 SPECIAL SERMONS 

into the unseen world, who had tried its realities and 
had come out from among the dead bringing life and 
immortality to light, said to Saul, '^I am Jesus whom 
thou persecutest. " Saul had resisted the Holy Spirit's 
message to him through Stephen, but he is now con- 
vinced that it is a message from God. His own 
spirit of persecution dies within him. By the Master 
he was told to go into Damascus, not to persecute and 
arrest the saints, but to be introduced to a disciple 
who would tell him what he must do. 

Jesus appeared unto him to make a witness of him. 
No one could be an apostle who had not been a wit- 
ness. He was to become the apostle to the Gentile 
world. He was converted and told how to become a 
Christian by the minister Ananias. Jesus, who had 
been crucified and buried, appeared to Saul in person 
and sent him to this minister, who was to tell him 
w^hat he must do. The minister came and found him 
praying. He had been three days without sight and 
did not eat nor drink. He was commanded to arise 
and be baptized, and he obeyed and immediately en- 
listed under the blood-stained banner, the banner of 
the cross, and from that day to his death he was a 
fearless defender of the truth. 

No one, who denies the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 
can account for the wonderful change in the life of 
Saul. Why did he turn his back on his own kin, his 
own people, give up his bright prospects for a bril- 
liant record in the practice of the law, and engage in 
the cause which only yesterday he had tried to de- 
stroy? Why would he place himself among the people 
that were being hounded by the priests and thus in- 
vite upon himself humiliation, disgrace, suffering and 
the death sentence as an impostor? 



THE RESURRECTION 87 

The apostle Paul is one of the miracles that the 
infidel can not explain. Paul alone can explain. He 
was unalterably convinced, and he recognized that it 
was the love of this living Christ that constrained 
him. He at once became the champion of the doctrine 
and fact of the resurrection. When in the presence 
of Agrippa he made his defense, it was one of the 
most pov^^erful speeches ever delivered. He declared 
it was for the hope of the resurrection he was called 
in question. Listen to his words when he exclaims in 
the presence of this ruler: ^'Why is it judged a thing 
incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead?" 

This logical, eloquent, learned and unimpeachable 
apostle has much to say on the subject of the resur- 
rection. His argument in the Corinthian letter is un- 
answerable. To him the three pillars upon which the 
church of God rests are the death, the burial and the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was by the resurrec- 
tion that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God 
with power according to the Spirit of holiness. He 
had seen Him and had heard Him speak and could not 
have been mistaken. To be saved, one must believe in 
his heart that Grod hath raised Christ from the dead. 
This belief is the life of the gospel. 

If Christ has not been raised, then we are yet in 
our sin, our faith is vain, our preaching is a lie, the 
apostles were false witnesses, our loved ones who have 
died have perished, and we are of all men most mis- 
erable. Thanks be to God, Christ has risen and has 
become the firstfruits of them who sleep. As we have 
borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
image of the heavenly. ^'We all shall not sleep, but 
we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twink- 
ling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet 



88 SPECIAL SERMONS 

shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorrnptible, 
and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must 
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on im- 
mortality" (1 Cor. 15:51-53). ^^For we know that if 
the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we 
have a building from God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens." 

After Paul had given his life to the preaching of 
this gospel for which he suffered much, he can say as 
he stands at the opening of the two eternities: ^^I am 
already being offered, and the time of my departure 
is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished 
my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is 
laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that 
day; and not to me only, but also to all them that 
have loved his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:6-8). 

Friends, the pale horse and its rider may cross the 
threshold of my home and take from me my mother. 
The one who cared for me when I was helpless 
and unable to care for myself; the mother who loved 
me when I was wayward; who taught me to kneel by 
her side and lisp my childish prayer; who has fol- 
lowed me with her own prayers from my infancy. 
Yet I can confidently say: ^^ Jesus died and rose 
again, and some day He will come bringing her with 
Him, and we shall meet again." 

The death angel may return and take from us our 
baby, the sunshine of our home and the joy of our 
hearts. We can carry the little form out to the same 
city of death and leave it under the trees and flowers, 
and come back to the familiar things that association 
has made more precious than gold, saying: The Lord 
giveth and the Lord taketh away : blessed be His name. 



jrrlLLIAM NEWTON BRINEY was born at Eminence, Ky., 
rfr Sept. 25, 1865, and educated in the public sclwols of 
Maysville, Ky., and in the College of the Bible at Lexington, Ky. 
While in college he preached in Leesburg, Ky., three years; then 
in Faris, Mo., six years; Warren^burg, Mo., one year; Broadway, 
Louisville, Ky., fifteen years, where his ministry still continues. 
For several years he has been president of the Kentuclcy Anti- 
Saloon League, and is president of the Louisville Ministerial 
Association, 

Mr. Briney has been *a member of the Board of Trustees of 
the College of the Bible at Lexington, a member of the Board 
of Trustees of the American Christian Missionary Society, presi- 
dent of the Kentucky Christian Bible School Association, and for 
ten years has been secretary of the Executive Committee of the 
latter organisation. At the Lake Winona Convention he was 
elected a member of the Executive Committee of the International 
Convention of Disciples of Christ. 



89 



New Converts' Day Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introduction. 

1. A good start necessary. 

2. Growth the sequel. 

3. Substantial growth necessarily slow. 

4. Some means of growth and developm^it. 

I. The Word of God. 

1. Food to be appropriated. 

2. Treasure to be searched for. 

3. To be read carefully and systematically. 

4. To be read sincerely and prayerfully. 

5. Suggested helps to reading. 

n. Prayer. 

1. Thfe habit of prayer. 

2. Place of prayer. 

3. Time for prayer. 

4. Posture in prayer. 

6. Suggested helps in prayer. 

m. Church Attendance, 

1. Neglect of this a sin. Example of Jesus. 

2. God honors faithful church attendance. 

3. Habit of our great men. 
IV. Christian Service. 

1. What this includes. 

2. The stewardship of means. 

3. The stewardship of life. 

Conclusion. 

1. Warning against discouragement. 

2. Illustration of patient continuance. 



BEGINNING-DAY IN THE CHRIS- 
TIAN LIFE 

New Converts' Day Sermon by W, N. Briney 

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. — 2 Pet. 
3:18. 

TO get a good start in any enterprise is impor- 
tant. That's why the pioneers in the movement 
to restore the faith and practice of the primitive 
church laid such emphasis upon the first principles 
of the gospel. In their day, matters of the most fun- 
damental importance had become greatly obscured by 
undue emphasis upon human opinions, traditions, doc- 
trines and speculations. By appeal to the Scriptures, 
they revealed the simple steps that make one a 
Christian, 

It is a slander upon these great and good men to 
say, as is sometimes foolishly charged, that they gave 
themselves no concern about the spiritual develop- 
ment of those who came to Christ under their minis- 
try. Of necessity, they stressed matters of initial im- 
portance, but did by no means neglect exhortation 
to walk in newness of life and to grow in grace, 
knowledge and truth. 

To grow is the business of the young disciple. He 
is a babe in Christ. He is to wax strong in Christian 
character, to advance in spiritual wisdom, and in 
favor with God and man. His good start is im- 

91 



92 SPECIAL SERMONS 

portant, but it is not all that is important. The col- 
lege student must matriculate, be assigned to the 
proper classes and get the right kind of start in his 
collegiate career; but the real test of his mettle comes 
in the months and years that follow in his student 
life. The soldier must enlist, but the proof of his 
courage is not so much in enlistment as in his con- 
duct and bearing in the campaigns that come after. 
He who would be a disciple of Christ must matricu- 
late in the school of the great Teacher; he who would 
become a good soldier of Jesus Christ must enlist 
under His banner; but the real problems and conflicts 
come in the subsequent days. Diplomas and distin- 
guished-service medals come only to those who go on 
unto perfection as disciples and as soldiers of the 
Lord Jesus. There is no chance for make-believe in 
this final test. The tree is known by its fruits. 

Let not the young convert be deceived. He is 
full of enthusiasm and new-found joy. But he doubt- 
less finds himself, after the initial experiences that 
made him a Christian, very much the same person he 
was before. Any beginner in the Christian life who 
expects to awaken the next miorning after his con- 
version a spiritual giant, is doomed to disappoint- 
ment and disillusionment. Nowhere in God's word is 
it promised that the young disciple may become a 
spiritual Samson overnight. Minerva is said to have 
sprung full-grown from the head of Jove, but no such 
wonders ever occur in the realm of character. The 
mushroom comes to perfection of growth in a night, 
but there's not enough substance to it to fill a thim- 
ble. The oak, luxuriant in growth, strong in fiber, 
driving down its roots to take hold of the rocks and 
coming to its splendid perfection by weathering a 



NEW CONVERTS^ DAY 93 

thousand storms, suggests the process by which young 
disciples may become strong in the Lord. 

The first principles of the gospel, faith, repentance, 
confession and baptism, possess no power to change 
one's nature. These powerfully influence his intel- 
lectual, emotional and volitional being, but they do 
not in themselves change him from a bad to a good 
character. If, for example, one is possessed of an in- 
flammable temper before taking these initial steps, he 
finds that there is nothing in them to eradicate such a 
troublesome characteristic, and that he has a fight on 
his hands every day. 

In becoming a Christian, one simply adopts a new 
program of life, accepts Christian standards of con- 
duct, and seeks in all things to make himself well 
pleasing to the Christ whose disciple he has become. 
He finds that abundant means and agencies have been 
provided to help him in his struggle to master his 
temper, to control his passions, to overcome his tempta- 
tions and to learn the lessons the great Teacher would 
have him know. His new program of life brings him 
under every obligation to make full use of the means 
of growth that God has placed at his disposal. 

I. The Word of God. 

Of prime importance to the young disciple, as a 
means of growth, is the word of God. From the . 
Bible he has been instructed how to become a Chris- 
tian; now he needs to learn from it how to go on 
"unto perfection and bear the fruitage of Christian 
life. Perhaps he was presented with a copy of the 
Scriptures at the time of his confession and baptism. 
He could have received no more valuable or appro- 
priate gift at the beginning of his Christian career. 



94 SPECIAL SERMONS 

The Bible is food to be appropriated. As food is 
to the natural body, the Bible is to the spiritual. The 
Greeks accounted for the mighty strength of Hercules 
by the fact that he was fed in his infancy upon the 
marrow of lions. The word of God is marrow to the 
bones of the growing Christian. Paul said to the 
youthful Timothy, '^From a babe thou hast known 
the sacred writings, which are able to make thee wise 
unto salvation." Some one has said that '4ean 
Christians own Bibles and feed on newspapers." We 
should, of course, read newspapers and magazines, but 
we must feed upon the Bible. We receive from it 
the truth whereby we grow unto salvation. It is 
good to own a Bible, but the sacred volume possesses 
no talismanic power to bring good fortune or to keep 
off evil. It exerts no occult influence to induce magi- 
cal growth. It is food. If we grow, it will be be- 
cause we feed upon its diet of divine truth; the 
truth that develops moral fiber; the truth that makes 
strong and vigorous; the truth that knits the muscles, 
that calms the nerves, and that warms the blood; the 
truth that creates spiritual energy and develops 
Christian manhood. 

The Bible is treasure to be searched for. Only by 
so regarding it may we discover and appropriate its 
truth. The word ^'search" is closely related to the 
word ^^ circle." To search literally means to surround 
a thing, as the enclosed plane is bounded by its circle: 
This means that by careful searching we are to make 
the truth of the Bible our own possession, incor- 
porating its teaching into conduct and character 
just as the circle includes the plane it surrounds. 
There are some Bible readers who complain of not 
getting much out of it. If young disciples will form 



NEW COm^ERTS' DAY 95 

the habit of reading it as it should be read, they will 
have no occasion to make this lamentation. 

TJie Bible must he read carefully and systemat- 
ically. If young people run while they read, if their 
reading is hasty and careless, if to ease conscience 
or to keep a pledge they take up the Bible just before 
retiring, and with sleepy eyes and drowsy spirit read 
a few verses, they need not expect to acquire any 
great store of its truth. If you want to get down to 
the heart of divine truth, you must meditate upon 
it. Prospectors after the earth's rich deposits of oil 
or mineral do not run with a hop, skip and jump 
over the territory to be proven, but with pick and 
shovel and drill they search with diligence, and ana- 
lyze with painstaking care and perseverance. In 
searching the Scriptures, you are in search of life 
and character, and your search can not be too dili- 
gent and earnest. 

Tlie Bible must he read sincerely and prayerfully, 
and with the desire to abide by its teaching. Eead- 
ing it systematically and carefully, one grows in 
knowledge; reading it sincerely and prayerfully, in 
the real spirit of discipleship, one grows in grace. 
*'If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my dis- 
ciples." Some read the Bible for its beauty of ex- 
pression, some to find fault with it, and some to sup- 
port a theological opinion; but he is most graciously 
blessed who reads to discover the will of God and to 
live according to that will. Young disciples will find 
that many perplexing problems of conduct will be 
solved by a knowledge of the Bible and a willingness 
to make the life conform to its teachings. Questions 
regarding various forms of amusement and recreation 
wiU find prompt and final settlement in the life of 



96 SPECIAL SERMONS 

one who knows and is willing to abide by the sug- 
gestions of the book of God. Young Christian, you 
have the promise of your Saviour that if you abide 
in His word, you shall know the truth that makes you 
free. If you know and live up to its instructions, you 
shall come to know absolutely, beyond all peradven- 
ture of doubt, that it is the word of God, and will 
be made free from doubt, and from every form of 
sin. ''Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall 
make you free." ''If any man willeth to do his 
will, he shall know of the teaching whether it is 
of God.'' 

A copy of the American Standard Revised Bible, 
with a good concordance, and a one-volume Bible 
commentary or dictionary, supply to the young 
Christian an inexhaustible mine of spiritual treasure, 
and implements sufficient to begin the pleasant and 
profitable task of digging up and appropriating those 
many precious gems of truth which will adorn life 
and enrich character. 

II. Prayer. 

Of scarcely secondary importance to the careful 
and sincere reading of the Bible, is the forming by 
the young disciple of regular habits of prayer. Habit 
is a thing of extreme moment. A garment that fits 
well and adjusts itself to the body is called a "habit.'' 
Prayer should become a habit, fitting well into the 
program of the day. If one does not do a thing 
habitually, he will probably lose the capacity to do 
it at all. One who does not take regular physical 
exercise, loses not only the capacity, but the inclina- 
tion, to exercise. The same law holds good in religious 
experience. You will probably pray little if you do 



NEW CONVERTS' DAY 97 

not form the habit of prayer. Men of prayer are 
men of character and of power. Everything is 
promised to those who are faithful in this beautiful 
and gracious ministry. Nothing in the way of spirit- 
ual growth and prosperity will be denied to that 
disciple who is much in communion with God. One 
need not be saying his prayers always, but he should 
live in such intimacy with God as to speak with Him 
at any moment, as one speaks unto a familiar friend. 
And yet if one is to form the habit of prayer, regu- 
lar times and seasons are necessary. 

Titer e sJiould he a place of prayer. Nothing is 
better than to hold tryst with God in some particu- 
lar place that has become hallowed by the divine 
presence. ^' Enter thy closet." *'Shut thy door.'' 
We read of prophets' rooms and prayer chambers 
among the people of God in the olden time. It would 
mean much to young people in these days to have a 
revival of the family altar and the place of medita- 
tion and prayer in the home. In the multiplicity of 
rooms and apartments in the modern house, why not 
have one dedicated to prayer and communion with 
God? To be alone with God, in a place free from 
intrusion, when one bares his soul to his own eyes 
and sees himself as God sees him, there is nothing 
better than this. 

Titer e must he a time for prayer. It would seem well 
to have regular seasons of prayer as well as a certain 
place. It is especially helpful to pray while the day 
is young. Jesus, knowing what problems and burdens 
the day might bring, sometimes went out a great 
while before dawn to hold tryst with the Father. 
''Ere you left your room this morning, did you think 
to pray?" is one of the old songs that should never 

7 



98 SPECIAL SERMONS 

die. Morning prayer makes duty easy and delightful. 
It adjusts the compass of the day, so that whatever 
storms or vicissitudes may come, or into whatever 
strange seas one may run, he is conscious that the 
needle of his life has been adjusted to the will of 
God. Irksome duty is turned into delightful privi- 
lege. ''Hast thou commanded the morning?" If 
so, you may be sure of the day, and you can never com- 
mand it so well as by prayer. Young Christian, put 
the seal of prayer upon the day in its very beginning, 
and you may then face all its tasks and responsibili- 
ties with spiritual alertness and with great hope and 
assurance of success. 

TTiere is a right posture in prayer. We are won- 
derfully influenced by our bodies, and reverence of 
attitude is conducive to reverence of thought. The 
priests stood, David sat, Solomon knelt and Abraham 
prostrated himself before God. If one is under a 
burden, if he feels a real need, his heart will cry out 
whatever his bodily posture may be. But in the 
trysting-place one will probably get closer to God on 
his knees. ''Paint me on my knees, for I have at- 
tained unto eminence that way!'' exclaimed the first 
Christian emperor. Not when seated upon a throne, 
or standing in some exalted position of privilege 
and power, does one assume his noblest posture, but 
when on his knees paying tribute to his divine birth- 
right. 

There are helps toward prayer. The young Chris- 
tian will find Harry Emerson Fosdick's little book 
on "The Meaning of Prayer" very suggestive and 
helpful. Take your concordance and find out how 
often and under what circumstances Jesus prayed. 
It will be a wonderful inspiration to you in your 



NEW CONVERTS' DAY 99 

own prayer-life. It will also assist you to get a clear 
conception of the Bible doctrine of prayer to look 
up in the concordance, each day, some ten or twelve 
passages until you have exhausted the more than 
four hundred references to prayer you will find there. 

III. Church Attendance. 

A third means of growth accessible to the new 
convert is attendance upon the services of the house 
of God. If the habit of reading the Bible and of 
prayer is necessary to the development of spiritual 
life and character, church attendance must also be re- 
garded as essential. This duty and privilege can not 
be safely slighted or ignored. 

Neglect of God's Jiouse is sin. Though we have 
the Bible in our homes and the altar of prayer 
erected there, we must not forsake ^ ' our own as- 
sembling together.'' We ^'sin wilfully" when we do. 
Eead Heb. 10 : 25, 26. If the new convert hopes 
for a successful Christian career, he must not neglect 
the house of God. Multitudes of young disciples are 
careless about this highly important matter. The boy 
Jesus delighted in the privileges of synagogue and 
temple. During his public ministry He went into the 
synagogue on the Sabbath day ^^as his custom was." 
He felt the need of the sanctuary, and formed the 
habit of seeking the helpful associations to be found 
there. 

FaitJi fulness to God's Jiouse brings honor. Business 
firms prefer young men and women who are regular 
church attendants. God will honor those who honor 
Him. The probability of success will be greatly en- 
hanced in business and professional life if one re- 
spects and honors the house of God. The story is 



100 SPECIAL SERMONS 

told of a young lawyer in a Southern State who was 
invited to deliver an address of welcome to the Gov- 
ernor on Monday evening. It was an unusual honor 
and opportunity for a young lawyer, and he prepared 
his address with great care. But he received a tele- 
gram on Monday, saying the visit of the Governor 
would be deferred until Wednesday evening. This 
Christian young lawyer immediately sent a telegram 
to the committee informing them that on account of 
a previous engagement he could not deliver the ad- 
dress on Wednesday. That engagement was the reg- 
ular weekly prayer-meeting of his church, which he 
had promised to lead. To many it seemed foolish for 
the young man to miss such a great opportunity in 
order to attend a commonplace prayer-meeting, but 
he decided in the beginning of his Christian life that 
nothing should swerve him from the purpose of his 
heart to honor God in the appointments of His house. 
He missed that fine chance to stand before the Gover- 
nor and dignitaries of his State, but God blessed him 
marvelously in his profession, and he is now num- 
bered among the foremost men of that commonwealth. 
Great men are church-going men. The really out- 
standing men of our country have been and are 
churchmen. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, 
William McKinley, James A. Garfield, Theodore 
Eoosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, and 
a great host of America's greatest statesmen, have 
been consistent church attendants. A young man is 
guilty of great folly and thoughtlessness who spurns 
the church and refuses to give it his loyal support. 
To the church must be given the credit for the con- 
servation of the things we hold most dear and that 
make life tolerable. The beginner in the Christian 



NEW CONVERTS' DAY 101 

life should suffer nothing to interfere with his regu- 
lar attendance upon the sanctuary services. Show 
me such a disciple, and I will lay my hand upon one 
who is growing strong in Christian character, whose 
faith is being confirmed, and across the horizon of 
whose experience comes no cloud of doubt and 
misgiving. 

IV. Christian Service. 

The last means of growth suggested to the new 
convert is to engage in every possible form of 
Christian activity. This will include financial support 
of the church and all its missionary, educational and 
benevolent enterprises, personal service in the Bible 
school, the young people's societies, the prayer-meeting 
and other departments of church life, the promotion 
of social and community welfare, and the many other 
forms of Christian service so abundantly provided in 
the complex life of our day. 

There must be the stewardship of means. No 
greater blessing could crown the life of a young 
Christian than to determine from the very first to 
recognize the principle of stewardship in all his life. 
This means acknowledgment of the obligation to make 
the best possible use of that which has been com- 
mitted to him. It means the development of any 
kind of talent or possession to the highest point of 
efficiency. It means recognition of the fact that *'God 
never made a human body or an immortal soul to be 
a depository." He wants us to be channels. What 
we take in and pass on through heart and life, we 
keep to bless and refresh our own souls, and to make 
us like *' sweet Galilee," which receives and more 
generously gives. What we keep, without passing on. 



102 SPECIAL SERMONS 

stifles and kills and makes us like the ''Dead Sea" 
which receives and gives not. Young disciples ought 
to begin by recognizing the principle of stewardship 
in the use of their money, and determine to bestow 
at least one-tenth of the income upon the altar of 
God. No Christian has a right to do as he pleases 
with God's silver and gold. It is His. ''The silver 
is mine, and the gold is mine.'' Even the ability to 
procure it is from Him. "It is he who giveth thee 
power to get wealth." Great spiritual wealth is in 
store for the young disciple who faithfully meets the 
obligation of the tithe. Recognition and practice of 
this obligation has never been known to hurt, but it 
has been known to help thousands. Accept the chal- 
lenge of the Lord, and put the law of the tithe to 
the test. "Prove me now herewith" is His ringing 
challenge. Bring the first sheaf to the Lord, not the 
last remnant. Conscientiously adjust your expendi- 
tures to your giving. Don't reverse the process, as 
thousands of the spiritually lean and poor do. Make 
your expenditures conform to your giving by putting 
aside at least the tithe, and do it first. You will 
not suffer materially by giving a tenth of your in- 
come. "It is the soundest and safest economic in- 
surance it is possible for one to carry." Put it to 
the test. You will not suffer materially and will be 
wondrously enriched spiritually. 

And there must be stewardsMp of life. But 
Christian stewardship is more than a question of 
Christian giving. It includes all life. Find your 
place in church and community activities. If you 
fail to make the most of your talents in Christian 
service, you are guilty of a breach of divine trust, and 
of a sin against yourself and the kingdom of God. 



NEW CONVERTS' DAY 103 

The test of your sincerity and courage is your will- 
ingness to serve the Lord in the use of the talents 
with which he has endowed you, in whatever place 
you can serve Him. That may be in the Bible school, 
or in some auxiliary society of the home church. It 
may be down in the slum district of your city. It 
may be in China or Africa. It may be in the gospel 
ministry. Be willing to go where the Lord wants 
you to go and to do what He wants you to do. 

In conclicsion, don't allow depression and dis- 
couragement too large a place in your life because 
of failure to grow up to your highest ideals. The 
man who wrote our text was, for a time, shifting and 
unstable. He was more like sand than rock. He was 
a sort of diamond in the rough; blunt, headstrong, 
given to profanity, and altogether unpromising. But 
Jesus, recognizing his underlying qualities of strength 
and leadership, by delicate use of the hard friction 
and compression of experience, molded him into the 
man of rock. The Christian life does not call for a 
special type of character. It calls for untiring devo- 
tion to high ideals, and the development, in spite of 
obvious faults and weaknesses, of men whose faith 
and purpose fail not. Out of rough-hewn stones 
Christ builds the church of the living God, which, 
after all, is ^* nothing more than a church of living 
men. ' ' 

A sculptor was working patiently one day upon 
a block of marble. His blows upon the chisel were 
so slight as to scarcely raise a little cloud of marble 
dust. A friend standing near finally said: ^'Give me 
your mallet and chisel. I can strike harder blows 
than you and will finish the work sooner.'' But the 
sculptor only smiled as he continued his slow task 



104 SPECIAL SERMONS 

and said: ''That may be your way of making a statue, 
but it is not mine." Months afterward, in that same 
room, the sculptor unveiled a figure so beautiful that 
his friend bowed his head in recognition of the genius 
and untiring patience that could work such per- 
fection. Even so God would have us bring our char- 
acters to perfection. After we have patiently wrought 
under His direction and in the use of the means He 
has given, for a lifetime, He will reach down and 
lift from us the veil of humanity, and we shall 
stand pure and resplendent and perfect in His pres- 
ence forevermore. 



/^A'KEY E. MO EG AN was torn in Johnson County, Ind., Aug. 
KJ 21y I860, and received his major education in Butler College, 
Indianapolis, Ind. 

In Indiana he has preached for the churches of Christ at 
Arcadia, Atlanta and Wabash. In Minneapolis, Minn., he was 
minister for six years, and then served the old historic Seventh 
Street Church at Richmond, Va., for five years. He preached 
in Paris, Ky., from 1903 to 1912,. and has teen in charge of the 
Vine Street Church in Nashville, Tenn., since 1912. 

Mr. Morgan occupies a lectureship chair in Vanderhilt Uni- 
versity, Nashville, on the subject^ ^'Pastoral Theology.'^ He is a 
member of the Board of Managers of the United Christian Mis- 
sionary Society, and has been president of the American Christian 
Missionary Society. 



105 



Mothers' Day Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introduction — ^A Tribute to Mother. 

1. Grod never loved us more than when He planned the home. 

2. Things do not make a home, but love and sympathy. 

3. The mother is the heart and soul of the home. 

4. Giod needed help to show His love, and gave us mothers. 

5. Motherhood is beautiful, wonderful, divine. 

6. How can we repay our mothers? 



106 



THE MOTHER AND THE HOME 

Mothers Day Sermon by Carey E. Morgan 

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; 
and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. — Isa. QQ: 13. 

THIS is Mothers' Day. Each of us will find his 
way into his own memory field to-day and, 
wandering in and out along the pathway of the past, 
he will gather forget-me-nots and heartsease for a 
bouquet. "What an armful of flowers, with nectar 
sweet as that in the cups of rose-buds and with 
fragrance outmatching Arabic gardens! You may go 
where you like along these roads of memory, into 
the orchard, or the meadow, or the woodland; but 
let me go straight to my mother, whose long absence 
makes the world a lonesome place for me after all 
these years. I want to hear her speak my name once 
more. I want to feel, once more, the touch of her 
caregs. 

Man's first home was in the Garden of Eden; his 
last home is heaven. This shows what God would 
have the home to be. He Himself built the first and 
the last, but man has built all the others. Man has 
made many mistakes in his part in this age-old task; 
but, whether he built this shelter for love in a cave, 
a cabin or a cottage; whether it is built of logs or « 
brick or chiseled stone — it is the best thing he has 
ever done, the best thing in spite of his failures, and 
the most important thing. 

107 



108 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Is there anything in music to compare with the 
laughter of childhood, in the happy fellowship of the 
fireside? Is there anything in sculpture to match the 
hearthstone group? Does not the mother with the 
light of love in her eye and with a happy child at 
her knee outrival RaphaePs ''Sistine Madonna''? Is 
there anywhere in fiction a love story like that writ- 
ten in the memory of home life? Is there any enact- 
ment of Congress or Parliament of as far-carrying 
influence as the law of love written in the hearts of 
parents and child? Is there any orchard like that 
in which child-life and the fruit of family affection 
grow? Is there any garden to match that garden of 
good will in which the flowers of love open and 
bloom? Is there any soil so fertile or so friendly 
to the seeds of virtue as that spot of earth which we 
call home? Man has made many mistakes in this 
holy business of home-building; but in spite of his 
mistakes he has never done anything else so worth 
while. 

I think God never loved us more than when He 
planned the home. His mighty heart must have 
throbbed with sympathy and good will, and His love 
for the sons and daughters of men must have been 
aflame, when He thought out the home relationship 
and when He conceived this place for rest, for shelter, 
for happiness and for love. 

It is to be noted, too, that He has so fixed it that 
home does not depend upon the size of the house, 
or the expensiveness of the furnishings, or the ex- 
clusiveness of social sanctions, or the fame of world- 
ly success. Only a few, comparatively, can have these 
things; but the humblest may have a home. I am not 
saying that such things are not worth while. They 



THE MOTHER AND THE HOME 109 

are. I am not saying they are inimical to the home. 
They are not. I am saying that they are not neces- 
sary. Many a poor man goes to his home in the 
evening with a gladder heart than many a rich man. 
Get these things if you can — the beautiful rug, the 
costly instrument of music, the dainty porcelain, the 
exquisite vase, the canvas of the masters, the cozy 
corner; get them all if you can; but these are not 
the most important things. 

Manhood has more to do with the home than 
money; womanhood, than wardrobes; character, than 
coupons; patience, than pictures; amiability, than 
architecture; virtue, than vases; and love, than lands 
and lawns. Let the house be furnished first of all 
with light, laughter and love; with patience, purity 
and peace; with honor, health and happiness; with 
faith, fealty and freedom; with reason, righteousness 
and religion, and then, as if by the divine alchemy, 
the house has become a home. 

The mother is the soul of the home. This is the 
language of sentiment, but it is nobly true. The 
foundations of the home may be of wood, brick or 
stone; the floor may be inlaid hardwood, or pine or 
slab or beaten sod; the roof may be shingles, slate or 
clapboards; the illumination may be tallow candles, 
coal-oil lamp, gas jet or electric bulb; however or of 
whatever sort these material things may be, the home 
is inanimate without her. Without her it has no 
breath of life. She is its heart-beat, she is its at- 
mosphere. Her heart pumps its life current. She is 
its pulse. She is its life. She is its light. She tends 
its altar and keeps the altar fires alive. Without 
her the home is pulseless, inarticulate, empty, dead. 
Without her, home is not home. 



110 SPECIAL SERMONS 

I wonder if I might be bold enough to speak of 
dead homes. There are many such. God have pity! 
There is the chill of death in their chambers, for the 
fires of love have gone out. The darkness of the 
grave broods over them, for the light of love is in 
eclipse. They are voiceless as the tomb, for love has 
been stricken dumb. Their grave-clothes have been 
woven in the loom of ill temper, or in the loom of 
selfishness, or in the loom of wastefulness, or in the 
loom of unfaithfulness. No one can bring these dead 
homes back to life but the Lord of life, who has 
power over death and the grave. But as long as the 
mother's love lives, the home will live. She is the 
breath of its life. She is its fragrance. She is its 
glory, its soul. 

God needed help to show His love and so He gave 
us mothers. "What an hour that was in the councils 
of heaven when the thought of mother was con- 
ceived first in the heart of God; when the plan was 
wrought out to nourish the seed of life in her flesh, 
to warm it into life by the warmth of her blood, to 
graft the new life into her life, to make her soul its 
shelter and her heart its cradle lined with the eider- 
down of love, to turn her touch into a caress and her 
smile into sunshine and her voice into a lullaby and 
her affection into a fortress. The mother, I think, is 
the final proof of God. 

How beautiful motherhood is! The baby is in 
her arms. He lies on her bosom. His chubby fingers 
play in her hair. His cheek is against her cheek. 
His arms are around her neck. His little feet trample 
her lap. His breath fans the fires of her love into 
a glow that shows in color in her cheeks. Long be- 
fore he can talk, his dimples, like tiny mouths, speak 



THE MOTHER AND THE HOME 111 

of his love of her. The mother and her child! What 
a picture! No wonder sculptors have chiseled this 
scene in marble, painters have portrayed it on can- 
vas, poets have put it into songs and public speakers 
have pictured it in words. There are many beautiful 
things in the world — an orchard in bloom, sunshine 
on the hills, a valley of wild flowers, a field of ripened 
grain, a wildwood in the springtime, a setting sun 
and its trailing glory; but there is nothing this side 
of heaven to match the beauty of the mother with 
her babe in her arms. 

How wonderful motherhood is ! How may we ac- 
count for its strength, with no such physical organiza- 
tion as that of the man; and yet unmatched in 
strength for vigils, for carrying love's load, for 
patient endurance, for unweary waiting, for answer- 
ing uncounted calls, for ministries that strain the 
soul. Is there no limit to the mother's sacrifice? 
Will her arms never tire? Will her dear fingers 
never grow weary? By what alchemy is her feminine 
weakness turned into unequaled strength? Love is 
the alchemist. Love lifts her load. Love links her 
to her task and multiplies her power. Love is the 
only possible explanation of motherhood. Love exalts, 
strengthens, beautifies, glorifies. 

How divine motherhood is! I have seen a mother 
reach through prison bars to touch her boy's hands, 
and while an agony like that of death gripped her 
heart, her eyes looked into his as they did in cradle 
days. Nothing could change her, however much he 
may have been changed. He was hers, the fruit of 
her womb, and in spite of the turnkey's key she 
locked him in her heart. I have seen her wait in 
her humble home for her boy's long-delayed return. 



112 SPECIAL SERMONS 

When every one else had ceased to think of him, she 
had ceased to think of every one else. I have seen her 
eyes fill with reminiscent tears as she thought of the 
empty cradle, and her empty arms, and her lone- 
some love. I have heard her sing her crooning cradle- 
song when the child, for whose soothing she had 
learned it, had long since been listening to the songs 
of angels. 

What is it I am trying to do? Well, I am just 
trying to keep you from forgetting. Perhaps if I 
can make you remember these things, the fact of your 
remembering may mean something to your own 
mother. Possibly I may help you to smile at her 
oftener. I am thinking that she might be hungry 
to feel your arms around her neck, and that, if you 
are away from her, you might send her a message. 
Some of us, I among others, would have to send our 
messages by way of the throne of God. I want you 
to touch her cheeks as in childhood days. She has 
carried heavy loads for you. I do not want your 
neglect of her to be piled on top of her already 
Leavy load. 

''Nobody knows the work it takes 
To keep the home together. 
Nobody knows of the steps it takes. 
Nobody knows but mother. 

*' Nobody listens to childish woe 
Which kisses only smother. 
Nobody ^s pained by naughty blows, 
Nobody, only mother. 

*' Nobody knows of the sleepless care 
Bestowed on baby brother. 
Nobody knows of the tender prayer, 
Nobody, only mother. 



THE MOTHER AND THE HOME 113 

''Nobody knows of the lessons taught 
Of loving one another; 
Nobodv knows of the patience sought, 
Nobody, only mother. 

''Nobody knows of the anxious feara 
Lest darlings may not weather 
The storms of life in after years. 
Nobody knows but mother. 

"Nobody kneels at the throne above 
To thank the heavenly Father 
For the sweetest gift — a mother's love. 
Nobody can but mother.'' 

You will not expect the impossible of mother. 
She is only human. It is all right to have a high 
ideal of motherhood, but we must be slow to condemn 
if she does not always measure up to it. Her love 
will prompt her to be brave in the midst of her 
cares. Her load will never be light, but she will 
cry to God for strength to carry it. She will be 
strained, tested, tried, put to it by her many duties. 
Her nerves will be keyed up often until they are 
ready to snap. She will have many hindrances and 
many trials of temper, and there will be confusion, 
clamor and uncounted claims and noise. But she will 
try to remember that in the home too much noise 
is better than too great silence. She will remember 
that there comes to some homes a silence that sounds 
louder in the lonesome chambers of the soul than 
all the clamor of childish voices. She will know that 
it is better to have muddy shoes on the carpet than 
to have them cleaned and laid away. She will know 
that it is better to have finger prints on the window- 
panes and mirrors than to have the fingers of a great 
sorrow clutching at her heart-strings. 



114 SPECIAL SERMONS 

^^The little toy dog is covered with dust, 
But sturdy and staunch he stands^ 
And the little tin soldier is heavy with rust 
And his musket molds in his hands. 

^ ^ Time was when the little toy dog was new 
And the soldier was passing fair; 
But that was the time when our Little Boy Blue 
Kissed them and put them there. 

"** 'Now, don't go till I come/ he said, 
^And don't you make any noise/ 
So, toddling off to his trundle-bed, 
He dreamt of his pretty toys. 

*'And as he was dreaming, an angel's song 
Awakened our Little Boy Blue. 
Ah! the years are many, the years are long, 
But little toy friends are true. 

''Aye, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand. 
Each in 'its same old place. 
Awaiting the touch of a little hand 
And the smile of a little face. 

^'And they wonder, as waiting the long years through 
In the dust of that little chair. 
What has become of our Little Boy Blue 
Since he kissed them and put them there. ' ' 

So, with all her load of love, she will have sorrows 
and heartaches. 

But what response can be made to the mother's 
sacrifice? Can the yonnger children also help her to 
carry her load of love? Their young feet can run 
many an errand. Their swift hands can unravel many 
a tangle. Their new strength can lighten many a 
task. They can love and help carry her burden. 
They can laugh and lift, and their laughter will 
lighten the load. Their desire to help will help more 
than their effort to help. Their sympathy will lift 



THE MOTHER AND THE HOME 115 

like a block and tackle. Their good will will lift like 
a derrick. Their love will lift like a Corliss engine. 
It is not so much, after all, what can be done with 
the hands as what can be done with the heart, that 
helps. 

Oh, son or daughter, whoever you are, wherever 
you are, thank God for your mother. The very name 
in my memory is filled to the brim with gifts from 
Grod. Its syllables on my tongue are heart-throbs. 
Its letters are leaping pulses. It's the holiest name 
in human speech except the name of God, who pities 
like a father, who comforts like a mother and who 
loves like both. 



GEOEGE A. MILLER was horn at Mt. Morris, Ills., in 1864, 
and received his education at Mt. Morris College, Carthage 
College and Eureka College, Ills. In 1890 he received the degree 
of A.B. from EureTca College, and in 1893 the degree of A.M. 
from the same institution. He later took postgraduate work in 
the University of Chicago. From 1894 to 1907 he was mimister 
of the First Church of Christ, Covington, Ky., and since 1907 ha^ 
been minister of the Ninth Street Church, Washington, D. C. 

Mr. Miller urns a member of the Executive Committee of the 
Foreign Christian Missionary Society for twelve years. In 1904 
he was u member of the University of Chicago Travel Study Class, 
visvting Egypt, Palestine, Syria amd Europe. 

He was president of the American Christian Missionary Society 
in 1913; president of Pastors^ Federation of Washington City, 
1917 ; president of the Interrmtional Convention of the Disciplef; 
of Christ, 1921. Has been president of the Ministerial Council 
Central Union Mission of Washington City from 1912 to present 
time, and president of the Washington City Bible Society since 
1913. 



117 



Fathers' Day Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introduction. — In which father's right to a special day is 
set forth as equal to mother's. 

I. Tlie Father's Responsibility. 

1. Children are imitators and close observers. 

2. Father's excuses are inexcusable. 

3. The custodian cf immortal souls. 
n. The Father's High Honor. 

1. Fatherhood among men reflection of Fatherhood of 

G-od. 

2. No true father wiU rear children in the midst of 

godlessness. 

m. The Father's Supreme Privilege. 

1. The privilege of church membership and co-operar 

tion. 

2. The privilege of founding and maintaining a Chris- 

tian home. 

3. The privilege of co-operating with God. 
IV. The Penalty for Ignoring These Things. 



118 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF 
FATHERHOOD 

Fathers' Day Sermon by Geo. A. Miller 

Train up a chil4 in the way he should go: and even when he 
is old he will not depart from it. — Prov. 22: 6. 

And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but 
nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. — 
Eph. 6:4. 

FOR a number of years our churches have been 
observing Mothers' Day. This is a beautiful 
custom and is proving very helpful to the church. 
It is also a help and a blessing to the mothers and 
children. Father, however, has been almost entirely for- 
gotten or ignored in these services. He has come too of- 
ten to think he has no part either in the church service 
or the home. It is time we should give father a square 
deal and bring him to realize that he is an important 
factor in the life of his children and of the church. 
I would not, for a moment, take away one particle of 
honor and responsibility from mother, but I would 
like to stress the importance of father's responsibility 
and influence. It may be that we have felt the im- 
portance of preaching to mother more than to father 
because, formerly, there were more mothers present 
at the church services. If the fathers have at any 
time felt slighted because they were not given a more 
prominent part in the special days of the church cal- 
endar, it is possibly because they have not been active 

119 



120 SPECIAL SERMONS 

enough to deserve such a place. They have remained 
at home or been so given over to business that they 
have neglected their true church and parental duties. 
My text shows the responsibility of parents in general, 
and fathers in particular. 

We all realize the importance of training children 
for the great work of life here and hereafter. This 
can not be truly done unless both parents perform 
their respective parts. Early training may for awhile 
seem to be lost in the life of an individual, but in 
later years it will have its influence. ''When he is 
old he will not depart from it," said the sacred writer. 
Paul realized the importance of the father's respon- 
sibility to his children. ''Nurture them in the chasten- 
ing and admonition of the Lord." It is not enough 
to feed and clothe them. The child that God has 
given is a living soul. His spirit is a part of the 
Great Spirit of the universe. His soul, as well as his 
body and intellect, is to be nurtured and developed. 
Who is to do this? Too often it is looked upon as 
the duty and obligation of the mother alone. Paul 
says it is the father's duty as well. You fathers 
can not shift your responsibility to any one else. 
There is no excuse that you can give, that will re- 
lieve you of this obligation to your child. I suppose 
in this modern day the most common excuse is that 
"I am too busy to look after those things. I leave 
them to my wife." You ought to be ashamed of 
yourself to make such an excuse. You admit the duty 
in making the excuse, and no duty in the world is 
more important. Two boys were playing across the 
street when the father of one of them passed on the 
other side. The neighbor boy said, "Who is that 
man?" The reply was, "Oh, he's a man that sleeps 



RESPONSIBILITY OF FATHERHOOD 121 

at our house/' Does your boy think of you only as 
a roomer in what he calls home? Fortunate is the 
child that has a true home in which both father and 
mother preside with equal solicitude and a sense of 
equal responsibility. 

It is a mistake to suppose that children are not 
close observers. A man once speaking before a Bible 
school was stressing the need of observation. He re- 
marked that children do not observe closely and to 
prove it he would use an illustration. There was a 
class of small boys on the front seats. He said, 
''Now, you boys give me some numbers of two figures, 
and I will put them on the blackboard.'' One gave 
''fifty-seven" and he put down seventy-five. Another 
said "forty-two" and he put down twenty-four. Then 
a little fellow that lisped called out, "thixthy-thix, " 
and added, "I'd like to thee the thucker change 
that." Not only is your child a close observer of 
folks in general, but he is a close observer of you in 
particular. 

Whatever may have been the indifference of the 
fathers to the church and Bible school in the past, we 
can see a great and growing interest at the present 
time. Never was there a day when so many men 
were in attendance at church and interested in the 
things pertaining to the spiritual life. We have only 
to look about us to see great men's classes; they num- 
ber hundreds and even thousands. Think of a class 
of a thousand or more men meeting every Sunday 
morning to study the word of God. What a great 
object-lesson to the growing boy! What an oppor- 
tunity for a father to set an example to his son! 

It is easy to make excuses for not going to the 
Bible school or church. One of the most familiar is, 



122 SPECIAL SEEMONS 

''When I was a boy my parents made me go until I 
became tired of it.'' Did your parents make you 
wash your face when you were a boy? Did they 
make you clean your shoes? Did not these things 
make you tired? Then, why do you do them now? 
Shame on you — ^big, lazy, no-account men — to blame 
your own meanness and neglect upon your godly, 
Christian parents! It seems to me they should rise 
from their graves to haunt you all the rest of your 
days. Your excuse is worse than none and is an open 
condemnation of your conduct, showing that you are 
an ungrateful, blasphemous son of good parents. 
They did their duty and you abuse their memory. 
Much has been said in criticism of preachers' boys, 
but if you will study the lives of the preachers and 
the noted men of to-day you will discover that a 
surprising number of them are preachers' sons, and 
that practically all of them are from Christian homes, 
where they have been brought up to attend the ser- 
vices of the church regularly. Instead of blaming 
your parents, you have occasion to thank them for 
making you do your duty when you were young. 

Every father should realize the great obligation 
resting upon hdm in the training of the immortal soul 
that has been given into his keeping. The soul of his 
child is of more value than all else in this world and 
to nurture it is his highest privilege. Man has been 
endowed with the ability to achieve great things. He 
has built the Pyramids and the Parthenon; he has 
tunneled the Alps and made a way for trains under 
the East River; he has dug the Suez and Panama 
Canals; he has erected great cities and accomplished 
many wonderful works — ^but the greatest of all his 
endowments is the ability to work with God in train- 



RESPONSIBILITY OF FATHERHOOD 123 

ing a human soul in the way of eternal life. It is 
a task big enough to call forth the best effort of the 
greatest men of this or any other time. Great men of 
all ages have realized this obligation. 

Not long ago a prisoner brought an awful accusa- 
tion against his father, who was a very eminent law- 
yer. "When asked if he remembered his father, the 
prisoner said: ''Perfectly; whenever I entered his 
presence he said, 'Run away, my lad, and don't trouble 
me.' " By keeping his boy from "troubling" him 
the great lawyer was able to complete his famous 
work on "The Law of Trusts," but his son in due 
time became a practical illustration of the most sa- 
cred of all trusts violated. 

True fatherhood among men is but a reflection of 
the fatherhood of God. What a high and holy po- 
sition. How full of possibilities for eternity. I cer- 
tainly pity some children when I see their fathers. 
What can you expect of a half-grown boy when he 
sees his father with a cigaret in his mouth? It is im- 
possible to understand the type of mind that will at- 
tempt to justify the setting of such an example before 
a son. Is such a man reflecting the fatherhood of 
God? 

A babe is the most helpless and dependent thing 
that is born into the world. Its absolute dependence 
is for the purpose of making it a care and a respon- 
sibility to its parents. All parents should see in 
their children's eyes the soul of God born anew into 
the world. 

''They are idols of hearts and of households, 
They are angels of God in disguise; 
His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, 
His glory still gleams in their eyes." 



124 SPECIAL SERMONS 

And if parents can see God looking out upon them 
through the eyes of their little ones, the little ones 
should find God waiting for them in the hearts of 
their parents. 

No true father would want to rear his child in a 
community where there is no church or where that 
child would receive no religious instruction. But, 
what are you fathers doing to build up the church 
in your community? It would be a very poor, good- 
for-nothing excuse of a father who would sit and do 
nothing while others fed and clothed his children. 
It would be just as bad, if not worse, for an able- 
bodied father to expect others to pay for his chil- 
dren's education. Is it not worse for you to expect 
some one to bring up your children in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord, while you loaf on the 
job of real fatherhood? You should do your duty in 
the development of the soul that God has given into 
your keeping. Your child is a gift from God. 

The welfare of children demands a home. That 
home should be a Christian home. It can not be a 
Christian home if both parents are not Christians. 
It is said that if children from the cannibal South Sea 
Islands were brought to a Christian land and put 
into Christian homes they would grow up to be 
Christians, and if children of our land were taken 
early in life to the South Sea Islands they would 
grow up to be cannibals. God so created man and 
woman that each is the complement of the other, and 
it requires both to make one complete person. One 
supplies what the other lacks. God did not create 
woman from the head of man that she should rule 
over him, nor from his foot that he should trample 
upon and degrade her, but from his side that she 



EESPONSIBILITY OF FATHEEHOOD 125 

should be a helpmeet to him. In the rearing of chil- 
dren the strength and power of manhood is to be 
mingled with the love and tenderness of womanhood, 
that the child life may be complete. If one parent 
should be taken by the hand of death, then the double 
responsibility falls upon the other. The mother must 
then, as far as possible, supply the place of the father, 
or the father the place of the mother. It is very much 
harder for the mother to do this if the father is 
living. I have seen fathers that were but a hindrance 
in the spiritual development of their children. It 
would be far better for the souls of some children if 
their fathers were dead. Is it possible that this is 
true of you? May God have mercy upon your soul 
if it is. 

The church is the spiritual power-house where a 
man becomes charged to carry home the electric cur- 
rent of Christlikeness to his children. It is impossible 
to convey spiritual life to your children if you have 
none yourself. No lodge, club or fraternal organiza- 
tion, I care not how good it may be, can take the 
place of the church. The church is the only institu- 
tion that can develop the soul. It is the one divine 
institution on earth. "Whatever there is of religious 
or spiritual value in the lodge and its ritual was 
borrowed from the church and from the Bible. The 
school, the club, the lodge — each has its place, but 
none of them can take the place of the church of 
Christ on earth. The school develops the intellect; 
the club, the social life; the lodge, the fraternal life; 
but the church is the only ordained institution to 
develop the spiritual life of the individual. Which 
is the highest and most important? Browning says: 
''Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure.'' 



126 SPECIAL SERMONS 

What part of your life-work and energy are you 
giving to the eternal things? How much time are 
you fathers giving to strengthen the eternal spirits 
of your children? The Creator has implanted in the 
bosom of every human being a longing for God and 
immortality. Sabatier says: ''Man is an incurably 
religious animal/' You may harden your conscience; 
you may neglect your duty to your God and your 
family; you may destroy your own soul and ruin the 
souls of your children — -but you can not entirely get 
rid of the feeling within you that you were designed 
to be a child of God, an heir of heaven. You may 
live in the cellar of your being; you may give your 
life to the gross materialism of your day; you may 
freeze your soul in selfishness, until it becomes as 
hard as the gold and silver you are seeking — ^but you 
will never be entirely satisfied with these things. 

What is the greatest inheritance you can leave to 
your children? Is it wealth? This they can misuse 
and destroy. Is it fame? This they can mar and 
abuse. Is it opportunity? This they can ignore or 
despise. Is it a good name? This they can tarnish 
or disgrace. The greatest inheritance you can leave 
is training in righteousness. 

It is sad to see men to-day trifling with life's se- 
rious problems and giving their best thought and at- 
tention to the fleeting things of this world. They dis- 
miss their conscience with a laugh; they kill their 
capacity for worship by neglect; they destroy their 
inheritance of spiritual life through pleasure and 
gratification of self; they see nothing in religion. 
Why should they? They never put forth a single ef- 
fort to develop the religious part of their natures. 
The landscape artist, Turner, was once painting a 



RESPONSIBILITY OF FATHERHOOD 127 

sunset from nature. A lout of a fellow was watching 
him as he painted. As the watcher looked at the 
sunset and then at the picture he said to the artist, 
'^I do not see anything so wonderful about a sunset.'' 
^^No," said the artist; ^' don't you wish you could?" 
How can one who is dead in trespasses and sin see 
anything in religion? To a blind man there is no 
light. To a deaf man there is no sound. To a blas- 
phemer there is no God. To a materialist there is 
nothing spiritual. It is more easy to commit soul 
suicide than suicide of the body. Use the means for 
spiritual growth God has given and you will see Him. 
Train your child as you should and he will behold 
God and His glory. 

What can a father expect of his son, when he him- 
self spends the Lord's Day with his pipe and Sunday 
paper? "What will the son think of soul values if the 
day of worship is used only for joy riding and 
picnics ? 

There is a great cry at present about *^Blue 
Laws." There are no Blue Laws being proposed nor 
enacted. The noise about it is propaganda of the 
moving-picture combine and other commercial inter- 
ests, to break down the sacredness of the Lord's Day. 
There would be no rest-day if there had been no 
church. You may abuse the church for wanting to 
keep this day as a time of true recreation and wor- 
ship, but you would be going the weary treadmill of 
seven continuous days of toil and labor each week, if 
it were not for the church. A man may become so 
degraded that he abuses the mother who gave him 
birth, but it is far from honorable and manly. You 
can abuse and neglect the church that has brought to 
you countless blessings, but it is something that should 



128 SPECIAL SERMONS 

bring the blnsli of shame to the cheek of every true 
man. Dr. Kelly, of Baltimore, one of the greatest 
surgeons and physicians of the land, spends nearly 
every Sunday in speaking on the value and need of 
keeping the day sacred and set apart for worship. 
Are you giving your child a fair chance in life if you 
are keeping him from the Lord's house on the Lord's 
Day? ''Forsake not the assembling of yourselves to- 
gether as the manner of some is." 

I wish I could give a list of the great men who 
have honored the church; men who have been devout 
and faithful in attendance upon its services and its 
ordinances. There are such men as Gladstone, who 
was a lay reader to the end of life. Lloyd George, 
who was brought up by a preaching elder uncle. 
President Harding, who refuses every invitation to 
play golf on the Lord's Day. Garfield and Eoose- 
velt, who never missed a Sunday service. Bryan and 
Hughes, devout and faithful to their religious obliga- 
tions. Nearly every President our country has ever 
had was an out-and-out churchman. You are not 
in great company when you neglect the church. Do 
you say, ''I can be a Christian without going to 
church"? I doubt it. An artist must go to a school 
of art, a lawyer to a school of law, a doctor to a 
school of medicine, and a Christian to the school of 
Christ. The church is that school. You can be a 
better Christian by attending church regularly. At 
least, your influence does not count on the side of 
Christianity if you do not go to church. 

The only way you became a Christian was by the 
way of the church. The preacher, whom you neglect 
and often scoff at, has more interest in your soul than 
you have yourself. By staying away from the church 



EESPONSIBILITY OF FATHERHOOD 129 

you are wronging yourself much more than you can 
possibly wrong the church or the preacher. One of the 
saddest things in the world is to hear a father 
say, **We do not go to church/' while there is stand- 
ing at his knee a boy who is soon to go out into the 
world of sin and temptation without the help and 
protection that the church gives. I once had a father 
praise to me the godly, faithful. Christian life of his 
father, while he admitted in the presence of his own' 
children that he never attended church. He had re- 
ceived on his own admission a great blessing from his 
father, but did not seem to realize that he was giv- 
ing nothing of spiritual value to his own children. 
What will those children have to say of their father? 
When William E. Gladstone died, the leader of an- 
other nation said: ''The world has lost its greatest 
citizen/' and Morley says of him: ''He cared for the 
church as much as he cared for the state; he thought 
of the church as the soul of the state." The world's 
greatest citizen, the mightiest statesman of Britain, 
could not afford to ignore the church. Neither can 
you or I. 

Another foolish excuse a man often gives for not 
attending church is, "I am better than some of the 
men in the church." To say that you are better than 
the worst is to make a very lame and foolish com- 
parison. Why not compare yourself with the best? 
Most any farmer can find in his cornfield an ear that 
is better than the poorest nubbin in his neighbor's 
field. That proves nothing in his favor or against 
his neighbor. Stand up before God like a man and 
let your own life count for itself. Why contemptu- 
ously exclaim, "Hypocrites in the church!"? Maybe 
there are, but there are more outside. The only way 



130 SPECIAL SERMONS 

you can ever rid yourself of the company of hypo- 
crites is to become a hermit and live alone in a cave. 
Even then I suspect you will be with one of the 
biggest of the lot. Those who find fault with the 
church to-day say: ''Why does not Christianity adapt 
itself to modern life?'* "Well, why does not modern 
life adapt itself to Christianity? That would be bet- 
ter for modern life. If you are looking for a great 
task in the world, you will find it in the service of 
Jesus Christ. Here is the true man's biggest job. 

The three truly great things in one 's life are heredity, 
environment and will. Every father deals largely 
with the first two. Heredity is the unseen hand 
stretched from the lives of our forefathers over our 
own lives. We hand down to our children our ten- 
dencies to physical and mental diseases. Some one 
asked how early to begin the education of a child. 
The answer was, ''With his grandfather." I have 
known children who have had to fight temptations 
and passions all their lives on account of the sins 
of their fathers. What is true of the physical is 
just as true of the moral and spiritual. Environment 
is the total of the surrounding things that influence 
our lives — ^things which we touch and which touch 
us in the daily business of living. What kind of an 
environment are you endeavoring to throw about your 
children? The will is that power within us which 
enables us to make resolutions and keep them. Will 
power may overcome heredity and environment, but 
many fathers are making the task a hard one for 
their children. It is possible for heredity to hand 
down a weak will, and then the case of the child is 
hopeless and the parent is to blame. I fear there are 
children who will open their eyes in hell and blame 



EESPONSIBILITY OF FATHEEHOOD 131 

their fathers for an eternity of suffering. Will your 
children be among them? There are fathers who 
through all eternity will regret the woe they have 
brought upon their children. Are you to be one of 
those fathers? God pity you, if you are. My friend, 
would it not be the part of wisdom for you to so link 
up your life, and the lives of your loved ones, with 
the church of Jesus Christ as to enable you to 
face eternity with calmness and assurance? "When 
the ''Titanic'' sank, the name of God was on every 
lip, and the heroic musicians went into eternity play- 
ing ''Nearer, My God, to Thee.'' When Captain 
Scott sat facing death amid his dead companions in 
the frozen south, the last message he wrote to the 
people of Britain linked his country and his family 
with God. When Shakespeare died, he left a will, 
the first clause of which declared, "I commend my 
soul into the hands of God." The last words that 
Tennyson wrote were these: 

'Tar though from out the bounds of time and place 
The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have crossed the bar.'' 

What a blessing it is to have the light with you as 
you journey along the way of life, and how much 
greater the blessing to have it with you in the end. 
The other day a man that graduated from Dartmouth, 
just sixty years ago, wrote the following poem: 

''As I review the years long passed, 
The best of all has been the last. 
Not that my childhood days were sad, 
Or any part of life was bad ; 
But, like a spring among the hills — 
Creating dancing, rippling rills — 



132 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Deepening and broadening as it goes, 

Until into the sea it flows, 

The tributes all along its course 

But clarify and give it force. 

Friendships and books have borne their part, 

Enlarged my mind, possessed my heart; 

Lifers cares and toils, its hardships, too. 

All pass alike in glad review. 

Its path has brightened all the way. 

And reached at last the full-orbed day. 

Like rivers, broadening as they flow, 

Deep falls and cascades soon outgrow; 

Thus down life's placid stream I float, 

My Master captain of the boat. 

And, as I to the haven near, 

Eeleased from care, without a fear. 

Along the shore I see the lights; 

Hear music, foretaste of delights. 

Ere long I'll join the song of praise 

Which I have practiced all my days.'' 

May our lives be thus lived for God and our 
children. 



/' J^ SPENCEB xvtas torn in Belmont County, 0., and received 
• his education in the public schools, in Hillsdale College, 
Hillsdale, Mich,, an^d vn Bethany College, Bethany, W. Va, He 
was minister of the ch/wrch of Christ in Bellaire, 0., five and a 
half years; Baltimore, Md., two years; Clurlcsville, Tenn., two 
and a half yea/rs; a group of churches in Virginia, while editor 
of the ^* Missionary WeeMy,^* nine and a half years; Winchester, 
Ky., two years; Broadway Church, Louisville, Ky., one year, and 
Central Church, Lexington, Ky., twenty-seven years. For twenty, 
of the twenty-seven, years he was superintendent of the Central 
Church school. On July 24, 1921, the Central Church elected him 
pastor emeritus, on salary, for the remainder of his life, 

Mr, Spen>cer has teen a pastor and evangelist for nearly fifty 
years, addimg npproximately eight thousand persons to the church 
during his ministry. He was a member of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Foreign Christian Missionary Society for fi-fteen 
yeurs, and is a trustee of Hamilton College, a curator of Transyl- 
vama College, a director of the Christian Board of Publication, 
a trustee of the Board of Ministerial Belief and a member of 
the Board of Managers of the United Christian Missumary Soci- 
ety. He resigned from the active ministry that he might spend 
his time in writing and in evangelistic meetings. 



133 



Decoration Day Sermon 

OUTLINE 

IntTDduction — ^Was3iington*s Warnings to Americans. 

I. Unity of Government and Obedience to Autliority. Impor- 
tant in both cburch and state. 

1. The high principle of neighborliness. 

2. The principle of the second mile. 

3. Personal reminiscences. 

II. Altruism, and Not Selfishness, Must Be the Motive of 

Nations. 

1. Was America selfish in the World War? 

2. Two kinds of narrowness. 

3. Daniel Webster and Justice Harlan. 

III. The Flag that Stands for Both Unity and Altruism. 

1. History and significance of our flag. 

2. Story of **Two Little Confederates." 



134 



CHRIST AND DECORATION DAY 

A Decoration Day Sermon by I. J. Spencer 

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy mindj and with all thy strength. 
T^he second is this, Thoa shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. — 
Mark 12: 30, 31. 

WHY connect the name of Christ with Decoration 
Day? Because we should love Him with all 
the heart, mind, soul and strength; and because what- 
soever we do we should do in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, *' bringing every thought into captivity to him.'' 

The thirtieth of May is a national holiday, and in 
observing it we make it a holy day by the Christian 
consideration of the welfare of our country, while at 
the same time we honor the memory of those who 
sacrificed their lives in response to their nation's call. 
Our patriotism and religion should be conjoined. 

President "Washington, in his farewell address, pre- 
sented three particular cautions with respect to Amer- 
ica's future, which we may at this time recall with 
profit. He said that the unity of government is the 
main pillar of our independence and tranquility at 
home and abroad. He declared that '^ against this 
point in our political fortress the batteries of internal 
and external enemies will be constantly directed." He 
urged that, as of infinite moment, we should cherish 
it as '''the palladium of our political safety and pros- 
perity, watching for its preservation with jealous anxi- 

135 



136 SPECIAL SERMONS 

ety, and indignantly frowning upon every attempt to 
alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or 
to enfeeble the sacred ties that now link together the 
various parts." 

He then warned against such geographical distinc- 
tions as North, South, East and West, which, by fos- 
tering ideas of separate interests and character, are 
calculated ^'to weaken the bonds of our union and to 
create prejudices, if not antipathies, dangerous to its 
existence. ' ' 

The church, too, should keep ^Hhe unity of the 
Spirit in the bond of peace" and not foster division 
among its members. A united church — ^united in 
spirit, purpose and function — is eminently to be de- 
sired for the sake of the unity of our Government, 
as well as for other spiritual reasons. The church is 
of incalculable value in the leadership and progress 
of the nation. 

Washington also earnestly recommended implicit 
''obedience to law" as one of the fundamental 
duties ''enjoined by the maxims of liberty." He 
said: "The very right of the people to establish 
government presupposes the duty of every individual 
to obey the established government." He denounced 
all combinations and associations under whatsoever 
plausible representation, "with the design to direct, 
control, counteract or awe the regular deliberation 
and action of the constituted authorities." 

To-day, as well as in the lifetime of President 
Washington, obedience to the laws of the Government 
needs emphasis and needs the good example of the 
church. He wisely admonished against the "excite- 
ments of party spirit," suspicion, faction and the ex- 
cesses to which they tend. He warned against dema- 



CHRIST AND DECORATION DAY 137 

gosrues who vannt themselves as infallible leaders. 
Such a warning is also appropriate to the church. 

''The Father of His Country " inculcated, with 
fervent eloquence, supreme regard to religion and 
morality. He said that ''of all the dispositions and 
habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and 
morality are indispensable supports." He declared 
that no man conld be a patriot "who should labor to 
subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these 
firmest props of men and citizens. The mere politician, 
equally with the pious man, ought to respect and 
cherish them." He asked: "Where is the security for 
property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of re- 
ligious obligation desert the oaths which are the in- 
struments of investigation in courts of justice?" 
"Whatever may be conceded to a refined education, 
or minds of a peculiar cast," he continued, "reason 
and experience both forbid us to expect that national 
morality can prevail in the exclusion of religious 
principles." 

Unity of Government, obedience to constituted Gov- 
ernmental authorities and the supreme value of re- 
ligion and morality, which Washington urged in his 
farewell address to the American people, are as im- 
portant now as they were when Washington recom- 
mended them. 

A nation as well as an individual is called to be 
unselfish and neighborly. The Good Samaritan nation 
will not pass by on the other side, but will show kind- 
ness to another country in distress. Jesus taught His 
disciples that when they made a feast they should not 
invite their friends and rich neighbors in the hope of 
reciprocation; but that they should invite the maimed, 
the blind, the poor; and that their reward would be 



138 SPECIAL SERMONS 

received in the resurrection of the just. The principle 
is as applicable to a church and to a nation as to a 
person. 

Can the teaching of Jesus be applied to corpora- 
tions and governments, industry, business, and the en- 
tire social life of the world? In all these God may be 
first and best loved, and the neighbor may be regarded 
and treated as justly and kindly as one would treat 
himself. Our Lord enunciated the great, practical law 
of arbitration, and commanded it. It is invaluable in 
controversies between labor and capital. Reconcilia- 
tion to a wronged and offended brother is essential to 
right worship. The fruit of the Holy Spirit will be 
found in the character of American statesmen when 
the church shall have discharged its high duty in the 
regeneration of its members through the gospel. Our 
Government waits upon the character of its religion. 
The Sermon on the Mount instructs our national lead- 
ers to go the second mile and to return good for evil. 
It teaches them to let the nation's light so shine among 
the powers that they, too, will glorify the Father in 
heaven. The neighbor may be a person, a community, 
the whole country, the world, the church on earth and 
the whole kingdom of heaven. Christ is the neighbor 
of the lost and neighbor also of the redeemed. To 
love one's neighbor as himself links all creation to- 
gether and leads one to pray, ''Our Father, be merci- 
ful to all." 

In memory of the appointment and significance of 
Decoration Day, I declare that I know of no reason 
why any one should be bitter or resentful either to- 
ward the North or the South on account of the sad 
events of the Civil War. If my father and older 
brothers had been born and reared in Alabama, in- 



CHRIST AND DECORATION DAY 139 

stead of Ohio, they wonld have given their lives for 
the Southern cause as they gave them for the Union. 

As a child I remember a Sunday afternoon con- 
versation between my older brothers, during the Civil 
War, in which they expressed their willingness to vol- 
unteer, but I did not regard the matter seriously. 
A few weeks thereafter the family carriage was driven 
to the railway station that their parents, two sisters 
and myself might see them pass, in uniform, with 
their regiment to the war. I remember how quietly 
the horses moved that morning and how silent were 
those it bore. I remember the coming of the train and 
the waving of my brothers' hands in their tender 
farewell. Scarcely three months had passed when a 
telegram called my father to their bedside. Both were 
sick. One was dying. His body was expressed to our 
home for burial. A few^ weeks more, and father, along 
with the other brother, died. Their bodies were laid 
side by side in the Quaker burial-ground near the 
Plainfield meeting-house. The building and its beauti- 
ful grove no longer attract the crowds of worshipers, 
old and young, who erstwhile assembled there as fa- 
miliar friends. The house has fallen into decay, but 
the birds still sing their grateful, happy songs and 
myrtle twines around the graves. Gentle and patri- 
otic neighbors strew those mounds with fresh, bright 
blossoms as the decoration season comes with each 
return of May. 

I remember that with the quick departure of those 
loved ones' from our home the roses left my mother's 
cheeks and the dark color of her hair changed to white 
like the snow. But, through the power of religion and 
the comfort of the word of God, her heart mounted to 
victory. She uttered no word of narrow bitterness 



140 SPECIAL SERMONS 

withal. Another brother of mine, who also shouldered 
his musket and followed the flag, has joined the three 
whose bodies sleep under the myrtle leaves in Plain- 
field burying-ground. Mother, likewise, has entered 
into her rest. I am sure that no resentment nor sor- 
rowful memory beclouds the sky of their happiness 
now. We are called to emulate their example and to 
look upon the bright bow in the cloud, and upon the 
cloud itself as only a background for the splendor it 
enfolds. 

As I look back upon the tragedy of the Civil War 
I think how innocent were the soldiers themselves, both 
North and South. Their thoughts were clouded, more 
or less, with misunderstandings, but their hearts were 
kind, brave and uncruel. Since they died, new light 
has flashed forth from the word of God. The Lord 
has been coming in glory, shining out from the cloud 
and the letter of the Scriptures. Our national expe- 
riences, also, since the civil contest of the sixties, have 
been healing. ^^When I was a child I spake as a 
child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now 
that I have become a man" — and the apostle was writ- 
ing of becoming a man in love's vision, spirit and 
power — ''I have put away childish things." I have 
thought, ever since I was able to think, that if all the 
leaders of our nation, both North and South, had only 
known God's will and method concerning the abolition 
of slavery, there had been no American Civil War. 
I can not think that the divine method of overcom- 
ing the differences that provoked the war, between 
brethren of the South and of the North, was the shed- 
ding of rivers of fraternal blood. 

The present controversy as to whether America was 
selfish in the late World War or altruistic, has two 



CHRIST AND DECORATION DAY 141 

important aspects diametrically opposed the one to the 
other. Our Ambassador to England is reported to 
have said that our nation did not enter the World 
War to help save France or England, but to save it- 
self; and that we sent our soldiers overseas most re- 
luctantly and laggardly; that ''we fought because we 
were afraid not to fight." He is reported to have 
said, also, that our country ''will not have anything 
whatsoever to do with the League of Nations, directly 
or indirectly, openly or furtively." 

Ex-President Wilson had declared: "We have no 
selfish end to serve. We desire no conquest or do- 
minion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no ma- 
terial compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely 
make. We are but one of the champions of the rights 
of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights 
shall have been made as secure as the faith and the 
freedom of the nations can make them." 

Premier Lloyd George, in welcoming Col. George 
Harvey as our Ambassador to the Court of St. James, 
said: "We appeal to America not merely as a nation 
of high ideals. We know that it is not a country that 
will say, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' The world 
has become more interdependent than it ever was be- 
fore." Thus the British Premier indicated his faith 
that the United States not only had the willingness 
to be helpful to the world, but was ready to translate 
that willingness into action. 

I do not doubt that both the conceptions and the 
motives that moved our nation to enter the war were 
mixed. Some citizens were impelled by lower and 
some by loftier impulses. I am reminded that Jesus 
said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born from above, 
he cannot see the kingdom of heaven." The kingdom 



142 SPECIAL SERMONS 

shines, but he can not perceive it. Our Ambassador, it 
would seem, could not visualize the celestial forces 
which others realized. He saw only the natural, world- 
ly, selfish causes in operation. 

The little poem called ''Flanders Field,'' by John 
McCrae, will illustrate what I mean by the altruistic 
motives that stirred and constrained the Allies, along 
with our American patriots and soldiers. No piece of 
verse in recent years has been •more widely read in 
the civilian world, and it was called ''the poem of the 
army" and was also the poem of the soldiers' hearts. 
It was used on every platform from which men and 
women were urged to adventure their riches and their 
lives to "make the world safe for democracy.'' 

''In Flanders fields the poppies blow 
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place; and in the sky 
The larks, still bravely singing^ fly- 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 
We are the dead. Short days ago 
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow^ 
Loved and were loved, and now we lie 

In Flanders fields. 
Take up our quarrel with the foe; 
To you from failing hands we throw 
The torch; be yours to hold it high. 
If ye break faith with us who die. 
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 

In Flanders fields.'' 

The same author, in a stanza from another of his 
poems — "The Anxious Dead" — answers the challenge 
thus : 

''Tell them, guns, that we have heard their call. 
That we have sworn, and will not turn aside; 
That we will onward till we win or fall. 

That we will keep the faith for which they died." 



CHRIST AND DECORATION DAY 143 

Among the many answers to '^Flanders Fields" was 
the following by Mr. Lillard, that appeared in the 
New York Evening Post: 

* ^ Rest je in peace, ye Flanders dead ; 
The fight that ye so bravely led 
We've taken up.'' 

There are two kinds of narrowness, whereas 
some had supposed there was but one. The usual 
conception of the thing is that of a straitened 
mind or faith. It has been associated w^ith a 
provincial understanding, a creed, a partisan view, 
resulting from ignorance of what lies outside its 
vision; while a limited love, a circumscribed in- 
terest in and sympathy with others, has generally 
escaped the odious appellation. But narrowness of 
heart is more to be deplored and more fatal than a 
meager understanding. In other words, a love re- 
stricted to self, and to those related and favorable to 
self, is more injurious and blameworthy than that 
which belongs only to an unenlightened understanding. 
One may have great knowledge, great faith, and yet 
be prejudiced, partisan, sectarian and selfish in his af- 
fections. The distinction is strikingly presented by 
the apostle Paul in the thirteenth chapter of First 
Corinthians and by the Sermon on the Mount. To be 
a patriot is better than to be a paltry politician. To 
be a Christian is better than to be a sectarian. To be 
an American is better than to be a Kentuckian. For a 
good Samaritan to succor a half-murdered man of a 
hostile nation is better than to show mercy to another 
because he is a fellow-citizen, and may return the 
favor. Caste, clannishness, partisanship, sectarianism, 
nationalism, should give place to Christianity which 



144 SPECIAL SERMONS 

feels, thinks and acts in the terms of all humanity; 
that prays ''Thy will be done on earth/' and both 
gives and goes that ''every creature'' may be regen- 
erated and become a citizen of heaven. 

We shall not love our own country less because we 
love other countries more. And, in order that we, as 
Americans, may the better serve the nations of earth, 
it behooves us to keep our political house in proper 
order. 

Applying this principle, let us hope as did Daniel 
Webster when he said: "When my eyes shall be turned 
to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I 
not see him shining on the broken and dishonored 
fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dis- 
severed or on a land rent with civil feuds. Let their 
last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gor- 
geous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored 
throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms 
and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a 
stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, 
bearing for its motto: 'Liberty and union, now and 
forever, one and inseparab"'e.' " And I think our hearts 
would add: "May that motto apply not only to the 
United States of America, but to the united states of 
the whole world." Let us still pray: "Thy will be 
done on earth as it is done in heaven." 

Justice Harlan said: "To every American the flag 
is the symbol of the nation's power, the emblem of 
freedom. It signifies government resting on the con- 
sent of the governed; liberty regulated by law; protec- 
tion of the weak; security against arbitrary power, 
and safety for free institutions against foreign inva- 
sion." Does it not stand, also, for altruistic ideals 
over against selfish aggrandizements and materialistic 



CHEIST AND DECORATION DAY 145 

ambitions? "When thoughtful persons look upon the 
flag they do not see the flag itself, but the nation it 
represents. It bears no ramping lion and no fierce 
eagle. It holds no insignia of autocracy or oppression. 
It carries no sign of royalty, no crown, no scepter. It 
carries warmth and light in every fold and every 
thread of all nations and all mankind. Only our loyalty 
to the cross can glorify and immortalize our banner. 

It reminds one of the words of the Psalmist: 
''Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, 
that it may be displayed because of the truth.'' If 
the fear of God shall characterize our people, then our 
God-given flag should be displayed because of the 
truth. 

The flag of the United States has been called 'Hhe 
flag of Dawn.'' If the designation be appropriate, we 
should in nowise keep back its radiance from the na- 
tions that sit in the darkness and shadow of death. 
The patriots who fashioned our national banner felt 
the sacred responsibility and significance of the flag 
we cherish. "When Betsy Ross, in her day one of the 
most skilled women of Philadelphia in the use of the 
needle, artistic in her taste and a genius in the free- 
hand designing of patterns, was asked by Washington 
and others to make a flag for the United States, she 
humbly replied, ''I'll try!" She suggested that it 
ought to be one-third longer than it was wide; that 
its stars would be more beautiful if five-pointed, in- 
stead of six; and that they should be arranged in reg- 
ular form. George Washington drew his chair up to 
the table and sketched a design embodying her sug- 
gestions. Her first sample was so pleasing that it was 
carried to Congress on the very day it was completed, 
and was adopted on June 14, 1777. 

10 



146 SPECIAL SERMONS 

The story is told of a certain man who came from 
England to this country and became naturalized. 
Later he went to Cuba when the war broke out there 
in 1867. He was arrested under the suspicion that he 
was a spy. He was tried and condemned to be shot. 
He sent for the British and American Ministers, who 
looked into his case and found he was innocent. They 
said to the Spanish authorities: ^^This man is inno- 
cent;" but they replied: ''He has been tried under the 
Spanish laws, and found guilty, and must die." The 
Spanish soldiers were ordered to put an end to his 
life. Just as they were about to shoot him, a carriage 
drove up rapidly, and the two Ministers leaped out of it 
and flung the British flag and the ''Stars and Stripes" 
over him, and said to the soldiers: "Shoot, if you 
dare!" The shot was not fired. Those banners gave 
to the prisoner the protection of both Governments. 
There was power behind those colors. No wonder men 
are patriotic when they have such banners to protect 
and to inspire them. 

General Gordon told a story of the Confederate 
and Union armies encamped on opposite sides of the 
Eavanna River ready for conflict on the morrow. The 
Northern band struck up "The Star-Spangled Ban- 
ner," and the boys in blue cheered and cheered. Then 
across the river the Southern band retaliated with 
"Dixie," and the air rang with the cheers of the boys 
in gray. Defiantly the Union band played "Hail Co- 
lumbia" and the Confederates came back with "The 
Bonnie Blue Flag." Finally one of the bands 
played "Home, Sweet Home," and the other immedi- 
ately took up the same refrain. 

Sectionalism, group interest, sectarianism, national 
and individual avarice, isolation and selfishness, will 



CHRIST AND DECORATION DAY 147 

be banished when the spirit of Christ shall have con- 
quered the hearts of the American people. The church 
should vote only for true and competent men for of- 
fice. But the real function of the church toward our 
Government, local and national, is to create men 
through the gospel, regenerate citizens through the 
truth, in such numbers and of such a character that 
they shall be fitted completely to adorn all the offices 
and to discharge worthily every responsibilitji -vb 
which the people may call them. 

I love to idealize the flag as a banner of goodness 
and truth, bringing political deliverance to the cap- 
tives and 'liberty to them that are bruised." Let 
every patriot lift it high for the display of the truth. 
Let it whisper to the air, '^Spread wide my folds, for 
no blot shall stain them.'' Let it challenge the rain 
and the snow, that its face shall be as pure as they. 
Let it say to the dawn: ''My red is not the blush of 
guilt, but the flush of love and joy." Let it address 
the sky, saying, ''Enrich and deepen my field of blue 
for the brighter shining of my constellation." Let it 
command every national cloud to depart or be trans- 
figured by its glory. Let it petition the sun to pour 
its light upon it, that, as it moves around the world, 
all mankind shall know that its power and its pur- 
poses, like its colors, come from heaven. 

Thomas Nelson Page tells a story of "Two Little 
Confederates," who lived on a plantation, called Oak- 
land, in Virginia, and whose names were Frank and 
Willy. The Civil "War had begun and soldiers from 
both armies appeared often in the neighborhood. Their 
brother Hugh, at the age of seventeen, had volunteered 
and they were very proud of him. They played that 
they were soldiers, and sometimes ventured into dan- 



148 SPECIAL SERMONS 

gerous proximity to the fighting. One day they were 
captured by a squad of Federals and were questioned 
as to the whereabouts of Hugh and a Confederate 
General. They refused to tell. Frank was taken away 
from Willy and threatened with punishment for his 
obstinacy. His hands were tied behind him and he 
was placed against a tree as though he were to be 
shot. He still refused to betray his trust. The cor- 
po/^rs pistol looked big to Frank and he wondered 
where tfe, "bullets would hit him; if he would be left 
all night in the woods and if his mother would come 
and kiss him. ''I want to say my prayers/' he said, 
and all grew dark before his eyes. He fainted away. 
Then a big, young soldier, who had said it was ^'use- 
less" to intimidate the boy, showed kindness. Water 
was dashed in his face and he awoke with his head 
in the lap of the big soldier, who said, '^We were just 
trying to scare you a bit, and carried the joke too 
far." The big dragoon took him in his arms to carry 
him back to Willy. ''I can walk,'' said Frank. ''No, 
I'll carry you, bless your brave little heart." The 
big soldier was looking at the light, curly head rest- 
ing on his arm, and gave Frank a caress for the sake 
of his own little, curly-headed son about Frank's size 
at his home in Delaware. ''I hope you'll get back 
to him safe and well," said Frank. 

Soon thereafter the boys ventured upon a battle- 
field while yet some bullets were flying and they heard 
a distressing call for water! They drew near and 
saw a blue-coated soldier lying propped against a 
tree, with a ghastly wound in his head. He could not 
see. His face was ashy pale and he still begged for 
water. Frank whispered to Willy, ''He's my sol- 
dier." Cutting the wounded man's canteen loose from 



CHEIST AND DECORATION DAY 149 

its strap, and disregarding the danger of being shot, 
Frank ran to the stream and brought the coveted 
drink. He pressed it to the dying man's lips, bathed 
his face and watched it as the tide of his life went 
ebbing away. The soldier thought, in his delirium, 
that he was again at home and called for water from 
the well by the dairy. The boys poured more water 
into his fevered lips. Then the soldier said, ''Come, 
my darling, and say your prayers with father.'' 
''Now I lay me down to sleep." Frank said: "Willy, 
let us pray with him." "If I should die before I 
wake." But the departing soldier's voice was now so 
weak that it could scarcely be distinguished, "I pray 
the Lord my soul to take," and the two little Confed- 
erates finished the prayer. The good soldier's soul 
had been taken. 

The boys ran home and told the story to their 
mother. An old ox-cart, the only vehicle left upon 
the place, brought the lifeless body to Oakland. It 
was buried, tenderly, in the garden. The mother of 
the boys read the burial service, an uncle of the lads 
offered a prayer and the little family group sang 
"Abide with me." A small packet of letters and a 
gold watch were taken from the pocket of the de- 
ceased, and sealed and placed in a bureau drawer to 
remain until called for. 

A year later, after Lee's surrender, when poverty 
reigned at Oakland, the boys met an elderly lady and 
a boy about the size of Frank, coming from the rail- 
road station. They recognized the driver and his one- 
horse wagon, but knew the two passengers were 
strangers, for they had seen no boy so well dressed as 
the young stranger. "Are there any Union soldiers' 
graves around here?" inquired the gray-haired lady. 



150 SPECIAL SERMONS 

They said ''Yes," and she told them her story. They 
inquired the name of her son who, she said, had been 
reported missing. ''Willy, that was our soldier,'' ex- 
claimed Frank. They climbed into the wagon and told 
her how brave and kind he had been, and added : ' ' He 
is buried in our garden.'' Their mother met the 
mother of the big, young soldier like a sister meeting 
her sister in distress, for her son Hugh had been 
wounded and captured in a charge at Petersburg, and 
as yet she knew not where he was. The body of the 
big, young soldier was exhumed and carried back to 
his home on the Brandywine, in Delaware. Hugh and 
his father came home again. Boxes of clothing and 
provisions arrived from the Northern mother who had 
found love and comfort in her visit to Oakland. 
Among the presents were two new guns for the "Two 
Little Confederates" and a complete trousseau for 
"Cousin Belle," who was to marry "the General," 
with Hugh to serve as his best man, and the boys were 
to be ushers. 

This story illustrates the parable of the Good 
Samaritan and reminds us of Him who is good and 
neighborly to all. 

When all the mists have rolled away, and narrow- 
ness of heart and mind shall have- expanded under 
the warmth and light of the Sun of righteousness, we 
shall know the meaning of the text, to love God with 
all the heart, mind, soul and strength, and our neigh- 
bor as ourselves. 



/JETEVE HOLMES was horn in 187^ in Cincinnati, 0., and 
.^JL received his early education in the grade schools. He spent 
one year in Bethany College, W. Va., then entered Hirom Col- 
lege, Hiram, 0., and graduated with B.A, degree in 1899. He 
spent two years at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 
as gradate student in Semitics am^d Hebrew antiquities, followed 
hy three years at same institution o^ gradnmte student vn philos- 
ophy, psychology and ethics, holdi/ng scholarships and Harrison 
fellowship. In 1908 he received his Ph.D, degree from Pennsyl- 
vanva TJnmersity, 

While Mr, Holmes was doing worJc in the Pennsylvoma Uni- 
versity he served as minister of the Sixth Church of Christ, Phila- 
delphia. In 1903-4 he was miniver of the Memorial Church, Ann 
Arbor, Mich., and then served for four years as religious-worTc 
director, Pennsylvania Eailroad Y. M. C. A., Philadelphia. He 
was assistant professor of physiology in the University of Penn^ 
sylvama from 1908 to 1912, and from that time to 1918 was dean 
of the general Faculty at the Pennsylvania State College. During 
this sa/me decfade he was lecturer in various lyceums, instituteSf 
clubs and Chautauqua bureaus, and from 1918 to present time has 
been president of Br alee University, Des Moines, la. He is a mem- 
ber of wumerous clubs, fraternities and ed/matvotml associations. 



151 



Education Day Address 

OUTLINE 

Introduction. 

I. Wliat Education Is Not. 

1. Not merely book-learning. 

2. Not knowledge of mass of disconnected facts. 

II. Wliat Education Is. 

1. Both a process and a product. 

2. Process is habit-making, product is liabits. 

III. Apply This Doctrine to the Church. 

1. The religiously educated have habits of worship. 

2. They have the habit of seeing things in right rela- 

tion. 

3. To learn to see and hear rightly is to become edu- 

cated. 

IV. Insight. 

Education opens the inner eye to new worlds. 

V. Doing the Word. 

If a man really sees and feels the truth, he wUl do the 
truth. 

Illustration and application. 



152 



A THEORY OF CHRISTIAN 
EDUCATION 

An Education Day Address by Arthur Holmes 

They should perceive with their eyes, 
And hear with their ears, 
And understand with their hearty 
And should turn again. — Matt. 13: 15. 

INTRODUCTION. 

THE text quoted is very properly a text on edu- 
cation. It is so both by content and context. 
Jesus, the great Teacher, has just been engaged in in- 
structing His students or disciples. His method is a 
perfect example of the art of teaching. He uses 
stories called parables to arrest their attention, and 
to convey his meaning, the best method of oral in- 
struction yet invented. Seizing upon events common 
and familiar, like sowing, he leads his hearers from the 
known to the unknown. From the concrete things of 
every-day life — ^material, palpable, tangible — ^he pro- 
ceeds to the abstractions of that spiritual kingdom so 
profound in its inner implications that the most acute 
powers of prophets, seers and sages have not yet 
fathomed all its depths. Then he closes with a warn- 
ing dissertation on the process of learning in its 
three steps of perceiving, understanding and acting. 

*' Perceive with their eyes, 
And hear with their ears, 
And understand with their heart, 
And should turn again. '^ 
153 



154 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Sight, insight and action! Herein are contained all 
the stages of all learning; herein is epitomized all 
education in all its processes, secular or religious. 
This is true whether applied to perceiving, under- 
standing and side-stepping a rattlesnake or a card- 
game; whether perceiving, understanding and apply- 
ing a mathematical formula or a spiritual principle. 

What Education Is Not. 

Naturally such a conception of education may 
sound strange to the average man, to whom the word 
'^ education" immediately brings up a number of more 
or less clear implications. To him ''going to school" 
and ''getting an education" mean the same thing. 
Likewise, the layman associates education with book- 
learning. The printed page and a mind "debauched 
by learning," to borrow Bishop Berkely's famous 
phrase, go hand in hand. One without the other is 
inconceivable to the average American, who has be- 
come imbued with a worship for education not equaled 
in any other land, except possibly in Germany, the 
land of " Ideaolators. " Education, schools, books — 
this is the holy trinity of desires contained in every 
good American father's ambition for his boy. 

From this primary misconception naturally flow 
others, commonly found floating about in the atmos- 
phere of newspapers, magazines and public speeches, 
all of them glaringly evidential of the lack of insight 
concerning this vital matter of education. The most 
prominent subsidiary notion is that one which makes 
education consist of a knowledge of a mass of hetero- 
geneous and disconnected facts, an idea recently illus- 
trated by a noted questionnaire, sent out by one of our 
most prominent men of practical affairs, in which he 
quizzes college graduates upon a number of facts 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 155 

which can be found in any book of reference in any 
library of the land, and with which no man of liberal 
education would try to encumber his mind. 

A man so educated might be densely ignorant 
about life and its usages. On proper occasions, he 
might exhibit his learning with pride by conversing 
with a visiting national politician or Chautauqua 
lecturer, or in answer to anxious inquiries about rare 
phenomena, as, for example, whether the suspected 
possibility of the earth's colliding with a comet would 
be diastrous to the world; or what mushrooms are 
edible; or how a man might find where to drive a 
nail into a plastered wall so as infallibly to strike an 
upright beam; or is there anything in carrying a po- 
tato in one's pocket for rheumatism? A knowledge 
of such things may be unusual, but is it useful? 

The belief that unusualness of knowledge is the 
essence of education is a belief resulting directly from 
the necessity of acquiring education away from the 
usual walks of life in a school or college, and out of 
books. Because ordinary men have not studied books, 
the book-learned man assumes a superiority over his 
fellows. The superiority is sometimes exploited by 
educators themselves as the chief value of their im- 
partations. It is said, untruly perhaps, that a Greek 
professor, advocating the retention of his language in 
the college course, brought forth as his final argument 
the assertion that the study of Greek gives to the man 
who has studied it a feeling of superiority over the 
man who has not studied it! This aristocracy bred 
by education, as commonly conceived, is far from the 
conception of the statesmen who insist that education 
is, and must always be, the foundation of democratic 
government. 



156 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Emphasis upon peculiar and unusual knowledge 
leads to another misconception contained in the de- 
fense of certain subjects in every curriculum, which 
are there by force of tradition, and can give no useful 
reason for their existence except to dispense a livelihood 
to some incumbent of a chair. The existence of such 
subjects is defended upon the ground of their value 
as *^ mental discipliners. " They somehow affect the 
'^mind.'^ They provoke '^ culture. '^ Modern educa- 
tional experiment has exploded this venerable theory, 
but the masses still hold it. 

To strip from education all these and other mis- 
apprehensions, and to set forth simply and clearly 
what education is, and what it does for its possessors, 
ought to be the clear purpose of every speaker upon 
the subject. Education is too valuable for personal 
life, for the continuation and maintenance of our Gov- 
ernment and our religion, for the happiness of man- 
kind in general and peoples everywhere, to have its 
utility blurred and falsified by outworn draperies of 
mediaeval superstitions and its free movement ham- 
pered by burdensome traditions of a long-dead past. 
Education is not the acquisition of a body of hetero- 
geneous facts, not mere book-learning, not a knowledge 
of school-worn and school-made traditions, not the use- 
less and ornate embellishment of an intellectual 
aristocracy. 

What Education Is. 

When we turn our attention to declaring what 
education is, we are tempted to wrap up our idea in 
a neat bundle, tie it with red tape, and deliver it 
labeled with a definition. But to people who know 
that a cow-pasture is something more than a wire 
fence around a vacant lot, definitions of organic 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 157 

processes, wide-reaching and all-embracing in their 
human interest, can not be so cleverly and expeditious- 
ly handled. Dynamic processes throbbing with living 
interests do not come in bundles; individual, social 
and human activities can not be confined with the 
curfew-call of a philosophic definition. For those who 
must feed upon such intellectual pabulum, the dic- 
tionary is always handy; encyclopedias are not absent 
and the volumes of educators fill the shelves of our 
libraries, though it will be found that, in the best of 
these, satisfactory definitions of education are con- 
spicuous by their absence. Our immediate business is 
to try to understand education in essential points and 
make application of this understanding in a thoroughly 
practical way to the spiritual and mental life of all 
people. The moment we try to do that, we are con- 
fronted with the alternatives of being too narrow or 
too broad; of settling the whole matter by quoting 
glibly some pseudo-educationist's aphoristic summary 
which presents only one phase of the subject; or else 
taking refuge in the frequent example of those who 
must speak when they have nothing to say and broad- 
ly asseverate that ''education is life!" 

To avoid these two extremes, let us begin by point- 
ing out the obvious fact that education is both a 
process and a product. The process aims to develop 
men. Men are born with an inheritance ; that inheri- 
tance is developed by environment and teaching, by 
the mechanical forces surrounding them and by the 
more or less conscious efforts of their fellows. The in- 
herited faculties, like imagination and reason, for ex- 
ample, enable men to discover and to create new in- 
ventions and works of art. The inherited and the cre- 
ative are not education, nor are they due to education. 



158 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Education embraces that zone of human activities ly- 
ing between these two. That zone of activities is oc- 
cupied by habits. Education, then, is the process of 
habit-making, and its product is habits — ^habits of feel- 
ing, habits of perceiving, habits of thinking, habits of 
acting. When Pepys heard a piece of music and thus 
acquired and retained a state of sesthetic exaltation 
lasting all night, he enjoyed one habit of feeling, due 
to his musical education. When Newton discovered 
the similarity existing between a white feather, a lump 
of coal, and the full moon, and named the similarity 
*' gravitation, " he did it by relating by similarities; 
in his case mathematical similarities, in which he was 
profoundly educated. When Darwin saw amongst a 
multitude of organic facts the one similarity of *' strug- 
gle for existence," so contrary to the accepted doc- 
trine of the lilies of the field and the birds of the 
air, he did it because he was in the habit of thinking, 
or noting similarities. When Byron swam the 
Hellespont, he was an educated swimmer in the habit 
of taking long aquatic trips. When Demosthenes spoke 
*^0n the Crown,'' he was by habit an orator. When 
Jesus went to the cross instead of fleeing for His life, 
He had acquired the habit of doing His Father's 
will. When a child repeats the multiplication table, he 
has acquired certain habits of mental association which 
it is almost impossible to break. Habits — habits of 
mind and body — these are the distinct and the whole 
province and product of education, in whatever form 
it may appear and to whatever height it may ascend. 

Apply This Doctrine to the Church. 

A religiously educated man is one whose habits 
of worship are regular. He prays without ceasing, 
regularly, easily; finding the exercise as sweet and 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 159 

nonrishing to his soul as his habitual meals are to his 
body. Contrasted with him is the man who has no 
religious education, no habits of discerning the face 
of God, nor bending his knee in worship, nor draw- 
ing from the holy Word messages of deep consolation 
and untiring inspiration. How laboriously does the 
minister of God labor with those of his congregation, 
whose religious education is only half finished; whose 
attendance at church is spasmodic as the weather; 
whose spiritual life vacillates between the mounts of 
transfiguration and the low-lying valleys of worldly 
pleasure; whose spiritual feeling, perceptions and ac- 
tions are all uncertain, unfixed, undisciplined by the 
habit of fidelity to the Lord. The process of changing 
such a man into a really religious man is the process 
of habit-making, and that is religious education. Let 
us see how the Master indicated the process in His 
talk to His disciples or students. 

Perceiving is the first step in the learning process. 
The insistence of the Master that some people have 
eyes and see not seems paradoxical in its opposition 
to the common experience of mankind. Yet His as- 
sertion is in perfect accord with all modern research 
into human idiosyncracies. It is literally amazing to 
a student of human capacities and capabilities to dis- 
cover how profoundly different men really are, though 
superficially they may appear to be the same. There 
are adults and children without any visible physical 
defects, who can not see many common objects. They 
are psychically blind. Many there are who can not 
see green or red anywhere in nature. They are color- 
blind. Mentally diseased patients are found who, af- 
flicted with varieties of amnesia, are totally unable 
to see printed words, or only certain printed words, 



160 SPECIAL SERMONS 

or to hear spoken words, or only certain spoken words. 
Some can read pages all except the letter ''a;" when 
that letter appears to the normal person it is a blank 
to the patient. These amnesias can be reproduced by 
hypnotism, and subjects can be blinded temporarily 
to objects perfectly visible to others. These, and many 
other astounding facts, have been discovered and re- 
corded in works of science dealing with such subjects, 
and all of them must be taken into consideration by 
any one dealing with a large and promiscuous public. 
But, disregarding the special and abnormal cases, 
it is also true with all people that they do not see 
everything before their eyes, even when their eyes are 
wide open. In fact, no one can see continuously; his 
attention will not permit it. He sees only in beats; 
things appear and disappear, appear and disappear. 
Try a simple experiment. Look steadily at a star al- 
most invisible; watch it without faltering; fix upon it 
your whole attention. Note that it will repeatedly 
appear and disappear in spite of all you can do. The 
same situation is true with all the senses. The waver- 
ing sound of a fading, long-drawn bell-tone is another 
illustration. The tone itself is steady, but our per- 
ception of it rises and falls like the waves of the sea. 
"What is true in these cases is true, but unnoted, in 
all cases; we see and we do not see; hear and do not 
hear. Ordinarily, what are called after-images, which 
will follow upon any strongly perceived object, bridge 
over these gaps and seem to make our perceiving con- 
tinuous, just as they do at a moving-picture show, 
where the pictures do not follow one another continu- 
ously upon the screen, but come and go by jerks as 
the mechanism of the machine proves. In fact, an 
interesting investigation has been made to show how 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 161 

mucli of the total time of one performance is passed 
with nothing on the screen whatever, and a calcula- 
tion has been made to find what percentage of the ad- 
mission fee is paid by each spectator for looking at a 
perfectly blank sheet! Yet how many of each thou- 
sand people will not swear that he sees pictures on 
the screen each and every instant of his looking-time ! 
Verily, the movie-goers have eyes and see not! 

But this is not all. Nobody sees everything before 
his eyes. He sees only some things; others he misses. 
"Why does he see what he sees? The answer tersely 
put is: ''He sees what he wants to see! He hears 
what he wants to hear!" John uttered a profound 
truth when he said, ''He that loveth, knoweth God." 
First, what he wants to hear, and see by reason of in- 
herited interests, or instincts. Some are they who are 
born with low instincts; some with the instincts of 
gentlemen and ladies. From earliest consciousness, 
their worlds are different because their inborn inter- 
ests are different. From the same fireside one boy 
flies to the city, another to the ocean, another to the 
wilderness, another stays and farms the old place. 
The difference in their preferences is the difference 
in their inborn tastes. The whole task of conscious 
education is to overcome inborn aptitudes for low and 
evil sights and sounds, and to implant an interest for 
the good, the true and the beautiful. That can be 
done by teaching and by self-decision. A lady and a 
gentleman were walking along a slum street on one 
side of which foul waste water ran in the gutter, while 
on the other was a lumber-yard, full of spruce timbers. 
"Huh," said the man in disgust, "smell that gutter!" 
"No, thank you," sweetly responded the lady, "I pre- 
fer to smell the lumber." Blessed are they who have 
•11 



162 SPECIAL SERMONS 

ears to hear and prefer to hear the gently intoned 
words of the Master as they floated on the sweet air 
of Galilee with their message of eternal healing. 

Then, again, we see what we have been in the habit 
of seeing. Repetition engraves upon the walls of our 
memories deeper and deeper reliefs in hardening repli- 
cas of the objects gazed npon. This crowd of mem- 
ories, which the psychologist calls the *' apperceptive 
mass," enables men to see and hear, and, to a large 
extent, determines what they shall hear and see. 
''Unto yon," said Jesus to His disciples, who had al- 
ready learned some things from Him (or, to put it in 
the barbarous language of psychology, had already 
acquired a religious ''apperceptive mass"), ''is given 
to know mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. . . . For 
whosoever hath [this apperceptive mass], to him shall 
be given, and he shall have in abundance." In these 
simple words He announces a law of human nature, 
not only profound in its application, but sound in its 
scientific conception. "What a warning to us to use 
rightly our eyes and ears! To pluck out those eyes 
if they offend by seeing the unholy; to stop our ears, 
and run for our spiritual lives from people with the 
poison of asps under their tongues! Once we see or 
hear certain intense and crashing sights and sounds, 
and never again will the dark mercifully shut out the 
horror nor will forgiving silence bring forgetfulness. 
Always will the law of God taunt us with recurring 
vision of the forbidden thing. 

What I mean by limited vision is lucidly brought 
out by the experience of a hired man over in Illinois, 
who all his life had raised hogs. He spent his days 
and his nights with them; fed them, tended them, 
nursed them, knew their nature, their grunts and 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 163 

sighs, their likes and dislikes, diseases and tempers. 
When in 1893 the exposition was given in Chicago, 
he saved his money for months, went to the fair and 
spent a week, came back home and amazed his em- 
ployer's family by not saying a word about the won- 
ders he had anticipated seeing and hearing. One day 
the farmer's wife could stand it no longer. *'John," 
she said at dinner, ''tell us what you saw at the ex- 
position. We are all dying to hear." John laid down 
his knife and fork, looked off into vacancy and then 
triumphantly recalled what he had seen in the terse 
statement, ''I saw von beeg hawg!'' 

Naturally, that was all he could see. In that re- 
spect he was a perfectly cultured gentleman. He had 
studied hogs in all phases from their suckling baby- 
hood to their final destiny in blutwurst. But when 
the uproar of the city struck upon his ears, he was 
deafened, and when the world treasures of that ex- 
position tumbled themselves upon his bewildered sight, 
he was blinded with the chaos of variety and saw 
nothing until, wandering into a side-show, he came 
upon a dear, familiar friend, one whom he could see, 
understand, appreciate, and over whose pen he leaned 
with steadfast and perfect admiration. 

That story makes me almost believe that heaven 
will not be heaven for some unless there are count- 
less millions of ineffable swine reaching mile upon 
mile as did the human faces appearing to De Quincey 
in his opium dreams. 

The way to the ability to see is the way of educa- 
tion. We must have things pointed out to us by some 
teacher. ''Look at zee feesh!'' Agassiz used to say 
to the beginner, who came to him to learn the mys- 
teries of nature. The student would look at "zee 



164 SPECIAL SERMONS 

feesh" a few minutes and present himself to the pro- 
fessor, who would ask a question or two, and then re- 
peat, ''Look at zee feesh!'' The crestfallen student 
would look and report, look and report, and again 
and again be sent back to the task of looking at a 
dull-eyed, dry-scaled, stuffed fish, sometimes looking 
for months before the professor thought he had seen 
it. That is the process, whether with fish or paintings, 
music or religion. We all must learn to see! No one 
can see without that training. Let him, who thinks 
otherwise, tell where fishes' ears are? They hear. 
How? If that is too hard, tell whether a cow's ears 
are placed before her horns or behind them! "Which 
way do the horns of a waning moon point? What is 
the difference in process between a horse's getting up 
and a cow's? Or, to be personal, and hence absolutely 
familiar, how many teeth do you have — of your own? 
When you fold your hands, which thumb is on top? 
Wives, ask your husband of ten years' standing what 
color your eyes are! Husbands, ask your wives how 
many pockets you have in your suit! Certainly none 
of these things is worth knowing, but they all illus- 
trate the fact that unless we have pointed out to us 
perfectly plain things in our world, we will never, 
never see them, no matter how sharp our eyes are. 

All of us have had the humiliating experience 
which came recently to me in the revelation of my 
own blindness to pictures. With an art professor, I 
was admiring the works of a world-renowned painter. 
My artist friend mentioned this man's great stained- 
glass picture in the Curtis Publishing Co.'s building 
in Philadelphia. I confessed I had never seen it. 
He was amazed; asked me if I had been in the build- 
ing, and when I said ''Yes, more than once," he told 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 165 

me of that wonder in glass, probably the greatest of 
its kind in the world, hanging in the lobby near the 
fountain. The fountain I remembered; the picture, I 
sadly confessed, was as the nothing of nothings to me. 
To the art teacher that was inconceivable; how could 
any man drink at that fountain as I had done and 
miss the imperishable picture on the wall? Simply 
because I did not see, and in that respect missed the 
fountain of living water, one deep draught of which 
would have left me with the image of an eternally 
satisfying vision of loveliness. 

Still another modifier of what we see must be 
mentioned. It has recently been emphasized in Ein- 
stein 's famous relativity theory. According to Sir 
Oliver Lodge, the essence of that theory consists in 
the recognition that the world is what it is because of 
the observer's position. Certainly this is true of much 
that we do see. If, on a train traveling forty miles 
an hour, I drop my knife, it falls straight to the floor 
and lands at my feet. A man who could stand out- 
side and see the path of the falling knife, would see 
that it fell not in a straight line, but in a pronounced 
curve. "Which is correct? Place one hand in cold 
water, the other in hot water, then, after an interval, 
place both in the same basin of tepid water; to one 
hand the same tepid water feels cold; to the other, 
warm. "Which is it? Hot — cold? Husband says pan- 
cakes are cold; wife insists they are warm enough 
for anybody; a family jar shakes the felicity of matri- 
monial adventure and threatens the permanency of 
the home, all because of Einstein's relativity. Jam 
is sour or sweet depending upon whether we have been 
just previously eating pickles or ice-cream. A door 
looks three feet wide when we stand directly in front 



166 SPECIAL SERMONS 

of it ; but its width decreases in infinite stages to noth- 
ing as we move in a half-circle from facing it to one 
side of it. Once, from a hill on a bright day, I gazed 
upon the far landscape of a beautiful country. Like 
a silver ribbon, all sparkling in the sunshine with a 
million diamond ripples, ran a river through the trans- 
lucently emerald plain, dotted here and there with 
clumps of trees that reminded me of the far-famed 
plain of Milano. A little later, when I rode close to 
that river, I was horrified at the turgid and filthy 
stream; yellow, mud-filled, covered with rotting debris 
brought down by a recent storm! Verily, one must 
stand in heavenly places, upon Pisgah's peak, or the 
Mount of Transfiguration, to see the beauties of the 
Lord in all their holiness! And let no vain material- 
ist with his moribund realism deny the right of man 
to see that phase among all the infinite number of 
possible phases of this world which really do exist! 
Infinite is the world; numberless are its facets; irides- 
cent are its phenomena ; God give us the will to choose, 
the eye to see, and the ear to hear that side of it 
which will be, forever, inspiring in its wholesomeness 
and loveliness! 

So far we have been dealing with the ordinary eye- 
sight and hearing. We have found wonders, to be sure, 
but they abound in God's world everywhere. We have 
been shocked out of our usual modes of thinking, but 
Jesus was shocking in that respect. We have met 
paradoxes, but Jesus delighted in calling attention to 
them in real life. We have found that we can train 
ourselves to see what we want to see; that such seeing 
does not give us a fool's paradise, but a real phase 
of the real world, as the latest science points out. See- 
ing is believing and believing is seeing. 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 167 

Now we turn to the inner eye; to insight, under- 
standing, to the meaning and significance of things we 
see and hear. Here education plays a multiplied part. 
Ignorance binds and distorts and nullifies so much of 
the world of reality that always education has been 
extolled for the freedom it gives by opening the inner 
eyes of its followers and for introducing them into 
totally new worlds from which the ignorant are for- 
ever shut out. Poets and philosophers have vied with 
one another in extolling this power of learning, and 
it is, and always will be, the chief crown and glory of 
the trained mind. 

Illustrations of this power crowd in multi- 
tudes upon the mind. For example, there is the 
old story of the shepherd and his son being met 
under an oak-tree by three similarly uniformed 
soldiers. All three soldiers remarked the tree; 
one noted its wood; another, its bark; another, its 
shade. ^'A carpenter, a tanner and a farmer," said 
the old shepherd, with elementary Sherlock Holmes in- 
sight. Dr. Jenner heard from an unlettered girl that 
a sore on a milkmaid's finger produced by an affection 
on the cows' teats rendered the girl immune to small- 
pox. In this casual and unconnected fact the learned 
man saw a cure for that awful scourge of Europe 
and the salvation of 100,000,000 lives in a century. 
To-day, hardly any civilized community is disfigured 
with people whose faces are pitted with that terrible 
disease. With the round oaths of pioneers, the placer 
miners in Nevada, about 1859, cursed the ''black sand" 
which mingled with their gold and persisted in falling 
to the bottom of their water sluices and mixing with 
the yellow dust, which was rendered valueless 'on this 
account. A couple of German students, armed with 



168 SPECIAL SERMONS 

the keen insight of laboratory training, happening to 
come that way, saw in the accursed thing of the 
miners pure oxide of silver, and the assurance that 
somewhere in the mountain-side, above the stream, was 
a mother-lode of precious metals passing the avarice 
of man. Inspired by them, prospectors set to work 
and discovered the precious vein which was named the 
Comstock Lode, from which an endless stream of 
wealth, amounting in some years to ten millions of 
dollars, has been taken ever since. Nearly like this is the 
story told by Dr. Russell H. Conwell, the lecturer, 
about oil in Pennsylvania. A man there sold his farm 
for $850 — and no sense — and went "West to discover oil. 
Men with insight discovered, above a bended board 
bridging a stream on the place, a shining, iridescent 
film. They knew it for oil, drilled on the farm, and 
discovered the first well of oil in the pioneer oil-field 
of America. Daguerre laid upon a plate, treated with 
iodine, a silver spoon; a resulting image of the spoon 
pre-portrayed the wonders of photography. A Nurem- 
berg glass-cutter dropped aqua fortis upon his spec- 
tacles, and glass-etching resulted. A lithograph ma- 
chine failed to place a sheet properly; Ira W. Rubel 
saw the result and offset printing came as a new proc- 
ess of reproducing. Bequerel placed uranium in a 
drawer with a photographic plate, an image formed 
and man's eyes were opened to a new world of rays, 
infinite in extent and manifold in variety, by which 
we talk across continents and fling messages through 
the ether clear round the world. Lastly and leastly, 
too, Montgolfier, charged dutifully with airing his 
wife's gowns, noticed how the skirts ballooned with 
the heated air, and when the mistress came home she 
found her husband busy sending up little paper bal- 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 169 

loons. His actions were not silly; they were the first 
efforts toward aerial navigation. 

Literally, without end, these illustrations might be 
multiplied, all pointing to one moral; namely, that 
education gives insight and meaning to the otherwise 
blinding and blind facts of experience presented to 
the eye and ear of the ignorant and unlearned. To 
the religiously uneducated they come; messages so 
common, so every-day, that their inner and precious 
value for the individual and the world are not under- 
stood, and the words of God fall to the ground of 
humbler lives and more discerning ears. Hence, the 
world wonders at Bunyan, George Fox, John Woolman ; 
at Billy Sunday, who, drunk on the curb, heard God's 
voice in a Salvation Army song ; or at Sherwood Eddy, 
called by the tennis courts of Northfield to the un- 
ordained bishopric of Asia. 

In the process of acquiring and using an education 
which I have been emphasizing, Christian education 
and secular education are identical. In wJiat is seen 
they are different. Christian education enables, yea, 
compels, the learned in Christ to see Him. Some see 
Him in church only; some in the holy ordinances; 
some in the Bible ; some in forms of worship ; all these 
are in the primary grades of Christian education. 
Some, more advanced, see Him in their homes; some, 
still more advanced, see Him in the housework, the 
shop, the office; some even see Him in their fellow- 
men, as in a composite portrait, for 

'*In every form of the human, 
Some hint of the highest dwells; 
And scanning each earthen vessel, 
In the place where the veil is thin, 
We catch, in beautiful glimpses, 
Some form of the God within." 



170 SPECIAL SERMONS 

And a few see Him everywhere, and these have gradu- 
ated already into heaven. 

A friend of mine told me how he first came to 
think of a sermon which so set forth the Christ to his 
congregation that twenty-seven people came forward 
one Sunday morning and made the good confession. 
The preacher had been at a lake, gazing with absorbed 
soul upon the ravishing sunset piling the western dome 
of heaven with such gold as only the Infinite can use 
with indifference to cost. To the gazer's mind came, 
first, the thought of that common, but miraculous, fact, 
that all people love beauty; some one kind, some an- 
other, according to education. Is there one kind of 
beauty the humblest and most ignorant can love? Yes, 
the beauty of service, a beauty that can be seen in the 
lowliest and meanest and commonest tasks, even in 
the sacrificial ashes of the tabernacle sacrifice, and in- 
stantly his mind leaped to it, in the everlasting and 
perfect service of the Son of God. His sermon on 
'^ Sacrificial Ashes" set forth so clearly the lowly 
Christ in the singular beauty of ministering service 
that others saw and many were saved. 

But a skeptical housekeeper may object to seeing 
any beauty in monotonous home drudgery, or any 
Chi'ist in washing and ironing. Well, for her benefit, 
I '11 give another true illustration. My church in Phil- 
adelphia was composed of working people. I used to 
make pastoral calls in the kitchen as readily as in the 
reception-room. One day I called on Mrs. Martz, when 
she was working on a hot, murky, Philadelphia day, 
unlike anything this side of Dante's second Inferno. 
The good woman was ironing, working away at the mo- 
notonous job of running an unpoetic flat-iron back- 
ward and forward over clothes that would be soiled 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 171 

again next week and endless weeks thereafter. But I 
noticed on her face a look not in keeping ^vith the 
task; a shining of the eye and a glory, that, per- 
haps, Martha, or probably Mary, wore, in a bustling 
household where housekeeping was far more tiresome 
than in enamel-wared, running hot-and-eold-watered, 
modern establishments. That look on this ordinary 
woman's face was explained when I noticed the open 
Book lying on her ironing-board, from which, to the 
rhythm of her work, she had been committing to mem- 
ory truths so full of eternal beauty and human depth 
that they had transformed her little room to the 
groined arches of the Eternal and her common task 
to the ministrations of angels round the throne of 
heaven. 

Doing the Word. 

At last we come to the doing of the Word. Herein 
has lain an age-long difficulty; here has been centered 
and focused the efforts of many religionists the world 
over. Between the seeing and the understanding of 
the right on the one hand, and the doing of it on the 
other, has always lain that mysterious abyss which 
separates man into his ideal and his actual selves, so 
lamented by Paul. Herein, too, not always clearly 
discerned, resides that antagonism between education 
and religion latent in so many ministers who are not 
able either to convince the man of intellectual power, 
nor to persuade him to religious observances when his 
mind is con^dnced. It has always been assumed that 
the fault lies with the recalcitrant will. 

This assumption is due to the teaching of the old 
psychology. It taught that voluntary action stood at 
the end of a psychic series beginning with an idea 
followed by a feeling, followed by a separate and dis- 



172 SPECIAL SERMONS 

tinct act of the ''will/' which launched a course of 
action. Therefore, it followed that a man's intellect 
might be filled full of invaluable precepts and his 
emotions resolved to penitential tears by the sublim- 
ity of ideals, and yet his stubborn or paralyzed will 
would not act. Moral and religious teachers set the 
essential mark of distinction between religious and pro- 
fane education at this point and quite consistently 
bombarded in theory, at least, the penitent's will. 

This assumption of a real hiatus between thinking 
and willing has led to more than one mischievous re- 
sult both in and out of the church. For instance, it 
has fostered the delusion that a man might keep his 
conduct perfectly respectable while allowing his mind 
to run riot with evil thoughts. The same fallacy lies at 
the basis of creedism, which demands exact correctness 
in a man's theological beliefs without necessary con- 
formation of conduct to Jesus' example, and, in an op- 
posite direction, leads to religious formalism, in the 
vesting of the essentials of worship in a mechanical 
observance of traditional rituals without thought or 
feeling. Still worse, it lends support to the popular 
and pernicious dictum, ''It doesn't matter what a per- 
son believes in religion; let every one think as he 
pleases.'^ In writhing agony the world learned, from 
Germany's belief in a God without heart, that it does 
matter what people believe in religion as elsewhere. 

Is there a chasm between thought and action? Can 
education be divorced from conduct? Is the point of 
attack the human will? Let us answer these questions, 
calling both upon Scripture and modern science, in 
order to attempt what John Wesley engraved upon the 
foundation stone of Kingswood School, "Let us unite 
the two so long divided, knowledge and vital piety!'* 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 173 

First, let us search the Scriptures, beginning with 
the Master's learning process quoted above. He does 
not indicate any necessary gap between understanding 
and acting. The tenor of his teaching points to a 
series — seeing, understanding and turning; or not see- 
ing, not understanding, and not turning. The as- 
sumption is that men would turn if they understood. 

In other places the Scriptures are more explicit. 
They emphasize over and over again, not only the abso- 
lute necessity of an understanding heart, but the 
direct and necessary connection between thinking and 
acting. The outer and the inner go together. What 
a man thinks, he will do; what a man thinks, he will 
become; this in general terms is the twofold aspect 
of the same law of thinking, taught both in the Bible 
and in science. As a man thinketh in his heart so is 
he; out of the heart are the issues of life; whatsoever 
things are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, of good 
report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, 
think on these things; set your mind on things that 
are above; be ye transformed by the renewing of your 
mind; beholding His glory, we are changed into His 
image from glory to glory — are some of the emphases 
upon the power of thinking, not only to conform con- 
duct, but also to transform character. To these might 
be added the insistence of Jesus upon the inner life 
as the real battle-ground, upon which moral and re- 
ligious struggles are fought out, and man's eternal 
destiny is determined. 

Because of Jesus' equal emphasis upon conduct, 
and the dwelling of all New Testament writers upon 
the same point, these texts can not be interpreted as 
teaching that if the heart is right, the outer act is 
still in jeopardy. Rather, we must look for some plain 



174 SPECIAL SERMONS 

and necessary connection between the two, which will 
explain the demand for both as fulfilling the require- 
ments of a religion based upon full possession of the 
whole man and not merely a part of him; not alone 
his intellect concerned with correct doctrine; not mere- 
ly his heart filled wtih useless, go-and-be-warmed sym- 
pathy; not merely his conduct, perfect though its 
etiquette may be when paying addresses in the courts 
of the Lord. Running through and connecting all 
of these is a relation to each other, which insures the 
transpiration of one another if the first is attained, a 
relation which very properly places the springs of 
the issues of life, not in mechanical inheritance, nor in 
material environment, but in the human heart. 

The new psychology agrees with Scripture, and in- 
dicates precisely the mode of inciting voluntary action. 
It insists that man is fundamentally built for action. 
Every impression made upon him immediately pro- 
duces an expression in the form of some muscular 
activity. Sometimes the activity lies wholly within the 
body and is therefore not noticeable by others. Some- 
times it is external. But in all cases impression leads 
to expression. This is the so-called ^^psychological 
arc," the primary law of animal action. The law 
manifests itself in a thousand ways, many of them 
obvious when attention is called to them. If a win- 
dow falls, or a shot rings out, or a sudden lightning 
flash cuts the air, people perceiving it involuntarily 
jump; if the odor of frying bacon wafts itself indo- 
lently through the window upon the summer breeze, 
each sensitive salivary gland responds to that impres- 
sion with an appropriate watering of the mouth. A 
baby's eyes follow a moving light, and hardly anybody 
can keep his head from turning if he sees an unex- 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 175 

pected movement from the corner of his eye. Some 
instinctive actions are fatally performed whenever the 
proper object is presented to them. Laughter, as we 
learned at school, is sometimes impossible to suppress; 
crying, likewise; few can stand tickling with perfect 
immobility and a sneeze is irrepressible. All these 
actions flow immediately upon the proper stimulations, 
and do not wait for any act of the will. And what is 
true with these actions is asserted to be true of all 
kinds of human actions, including those commonly 
called voluntary, or ideational, which are preceded in 
consciousness by some idea of an end or a purpose 
to be achieved by the action. These last deserve our 
special consideration. 

If it is true that ideas inspire and direct actions, 
then at once it is seen how education which imparts 
ideas and ideals likewise controls action. Can it be 
done? Do ideas initiate action? ''We may lay it 
down for certain,'' says Prof. William James, the 
leading representative of the new psychology, ''that 
every representation of a movement awakens in some 
degree the actual movement which is its object and 
awakens it in a maximum degree, whenever it is not 
kept from doing it by some antagonistic representation 
present simultaneously to the mind." Herein is laid 
bare the doctrine of the immediate effect of ideas upon 
action, and therefore upon education, and upon human 
character. And herein is laid bare also the unlimited, 
direct and immediate power of the preacher of the 
gospel, whose function it is to instill into the minds 
of people the ideals of a religious life. Note that 
once an idea of an act or a course of action is by any 
means lodged in any mind so that there is present no 
antagonistic idea, then the resultant action flows out 



176 SPECIAL SERMONS 

immediately and inevitably. The whole power of the 
preacher, therefore, and of the religions educator, 
shonld be focused upon that one specific and vital 
task of fixing ideals of conduct in their hearers' 
minds. All else is secondary to this central purpose 
of that ' 'foolishness of preaching" by which pagan 
Rome was brought to ruin and the whole world shown 
the way of salvation. 

Opposed to the purpose of the preacher is, of 
course, the free will of the hearer, who may definitely, 
and obstinately, refuse entrance to any religious ideas. 
He may hear, he may understand; and then he may 
definitely and finally, to the destruction of his life and 
the perdition of his soul, reject. His past habits may 
grip him too firmly; his inherited incubus of desire 
may be too strong; his environment may drag him 
down; all these may be too much for the preacher 
to combat, but at least the point of the preacher's 
attack is defined; the citadel to be stormed stands out 
amid the outworks, moat, battlements and towers with 
perfect definiteness; and it is a citadel that can be 
stormed with the kind of offensive weapons in which 
the preacher, of all men, is peculiarly trained. He con- 
tends not with flesh and blood, but with principalities 
and powers in high places; he is opposing spiritual 
forces to spiritual forces. His whole mode of attack 
is educational. 

Again, we may turn to common experiences of life, 
to scientific experiment and to psychological lore for 
an abundance of illustrations for this power of ideas. 
Common life exhibits it in a timid woman trying to 
cross the street with a baby-carriage. She waits till 
the idea of crossing seizes her mind; starts, sees dan- 
gers, gives fleeting attention to the idea ''Go back!^* 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 177 

then, ''Go on!" and flutters backward and forward in 
front of vehicles to the instant danger of her own 
life and the endangerment of the souls of every driver 
in a hurry. Vacillating conduct of this sort is always 
due to a play of serially conflicting ideas. Upon such 
a play of ideas, many times, has hung the destiny of 
nations, and the rise and fall of civilization. 

Mind-reading, or muscle-reading, slate-writing, 
finding water with forked sticks, the pranks of the 
Ouija board, and the whole series of wonder-working 
powers, can all be resolved into this simple law of the 
impulsive force of ideas. Hypnotism, in all its phases, 
relies wholly upon the same power, and illustrates in 
a remarkable way the might of an unhindered idea to 
have its way with the individual under its spell. 
Persons, moved by a suggested idea, swim in imaginary 
waters ; make out wills to strangers ; stiffen their bodies 
so as to bear immense weights; dance when they never 
danced before in their lives; see through solid, opaque 
walls; hear at great distances; see letters of micro- 
scopic size; are blinded utterly to the presence of some 
objects and some persons; can not feel pain when told 
not to. Dr. Esdraile, of Calcutta, performed hundreds 
of operations upon patients without an anaesthetic. 
These and thousands of other examples of the profound 
and mysterious power somehow connected with ideas, 
make the working of this law in our every-day lives in 
each and every so-called voluntary act a matter past 
doubt. The power may be escaped by rejecting the 
idea; the power may be used for good or evil; the 
power itself may be the manifestation of some person- 
ality or personalities; of these items no man is sure. 
But of the existence of the power and the opportunity 
of using it beneficently for leading men and women 

12 



178 SPECIAL SERMONS 

and children, either by the long process of constant 
suggestion, or by the more startling and sudden process 
of conversion into lives devoted to Jesus Christ and 
His kingdom, there can be no doubt. Ideas and 
action, ideals and conduct, this relationship is fixed 
and predetermined, and the one follows the other with 
almost fatal invariability. 

Surely it must be inspiring to the minister of God, 
to the patient, and sometimes uncertain, Sunday-school 
teacher, to know that he is a coworker with God, who 
gives him access to a wondrous power. That power 
is always there. Like the rays of the ether ready to 
speak through the wireless transmitter; like the power 
of electricity here from the beginning of time; like 
the torrential falls of Niagara waiting only to be 
harnessed, converted and directed — so this mighty 
power lies ready to be used by the servants of God 
who will harness it to dominating personalities, trans- 
form it into precise and passionate pictures of the 
Saviour, and connect it, by the confident testimony of 
tongue and pen, with the lives of those ignorant of 
the saving power of Christ. Sometimes the power 
does not manifest itself immediately; the seed remains 
long dormant. The son of a rich American father, a 
waster and a wastrel, a derelict in an opium-den in 
far-away China, one night heard again the words of 
his long-dead Sunday-school teacher, her ideals for 
him, her hopes for his life, her prayers for his sal- 
vation, and they seized him in that moment with such 
power that he gradually rebuilt himself v/ith the help 
of God into a decent man and a Christian. Dr. Lyman 
B. Sperry used to tell about an engineer on a passenger 
train one day passing a long freight train on the op- 
posite track. Just as the engines passed each other 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 179 

a couple of empty box-ears on the freight train jumped 
the track and toppled over in front of the speeding 
express. Not a moment intervened; the engineer of 
the express reached over, and, instead of shutting off 
the steam, threw his throttle wide open, with the re- 
sult that the already flying engine leaped forward 
with a new spurt, cut through the freight cars and 
the train came to a stop on the other side without 
injury to any one. The passengers, unhurt, but shaken, 
crowded out of the cars, took in the situation and then 
a group crowded around the man at the throttle with 
expressions of gratitude and thanks for their lives. 
''How did you think of that?'' one asked; ''you had 
not a moment to act; how could you be so cool under 
that excitement and do the right thing in an instant?'' 
"I did not think of it in an instant," replied the engi- 
neer, "for I have been thinking for the past three 
years that if ever I was caught in a place like that, I 
would not attempt to shut off steam, but I would pull 
the throttle wide open and cut through. When I was 
confronted with the situation, I did not think; it did 
itself!" 

Lastly, a man will be what he thinks. Quotations 
we could give; illustrations from science could be 
culled; history would yield its quantum, and daily life 
would open its stores to the observing, and all would 
testify to this law. Hypnotism might be invoked to 
show how suggestion and auto-suggestion operate to 
affect, not only the mind and morals, but the body it- 
self. Water, declared to be wine, makes a hypnotized 
drinker drunk; mustard plasters refuse to blister 
when ordered not to do so; imaginary porous plas- 
ters leave their marks upon the skin ; cold water scalds ; 
cold pencils, imagined to be hot irons, raise blisters; 



180 SPECIAL SEEMONS 

all these seeming impossibilities have been, and are 
being, performed by scientists under laboratory con- 
ditions of the most exacting kind. 

All the above-mentioned events are expressions of 
power — power somehow connected with ideas. These 
ideas not only operate, but they operate injuriously 
or beneficently as they convey good or bad meanings. 
Ideas are lodged in the minds of persons so affected 
by the ordinary means of communication; some peo- 
ple can be affected far more mightily than others; 
all can be affected to some degree. The effect depends 
upon the presence or absence, dominance or weakness 
of other ideas simultaneously in consciousness. Not 
even the church-member who regularly takes his Sun- 
day nap in his pew can escape altogether. Professor 
Mosso, an Italian scientist, found a man who had 
been wounded in such a manner that a hole was left 
in his skull even after the edges of the wound entire- 
ly healed. Through that artificial orifice. Dr. Mosso 
attached an instrument resting upon the man's brain, 
and connected the instrument with electric wires, so 
that any brain change of the subject would be re- 
corded upon a moving paper. When the man was 
sound asleep and some one opened his door, though 
he did not awaken, the indicator showed his brain 
was slightly affected. If his name was whispered, a 
greater impression was made; if his name was spoken 
out loud, it made a relatively startling impression 
though the man himself remained sound asleep. Be 
not discouraged, preacher and teacher; there is a real 
might in the ''foolishness of preaching," though your 
auditors do not always seem to hear. 

Some years ago an American stood with others in 
the Louvre, in Paris, gazing at a wonderful painting 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 181 

of Christ. Something unique was there, something 
seeming to surpass human technique, so that that pic- 
ture was always surrounded by its little crowd of 
worshipers. ''I'd like to see the man that could 
paint like that/' sighed the American. An ever- 
courteous Frenchman turned, and said, ''You can see 
the artist any day; he is Herr Hoffman; his studio 
is near here," and he added the directions. The next 
morning the American called at the studio, found the 
door open, saw that no one was within, and entered. 
The walls all round were covered from floor to ceiling 
with studies and sketches and finished paintings of 
the Christ, which the visitor began to study. There 
was Jesus, the babe in his mother's arms; the boy of 
twelve in Jerusalem; the young man in the carpenter 
shop ; Jesus baptized ; the Master stilling the waves on 
Galilee; the loving Saviour raising the dead and open- 
ing the eyes of the blind and unstopping the ears 
of the deaf; the lonely Jesus fighting out his battle 
in Gethsemane ; and, finally, the Saviour of humanity 
lifted up on dark Calvary for the sins of the world. 
The American so lost himself in these works that he 
did not notice he was near the door until he heard 
a step; the door opened, and for a moment the 
beholder thought he was confronted by the reincar- 
nated Christ. It was an old man, it is true, with a 
long, white beard and silvery hair, but with something 
in his face that was in every one of those pictures. 
It was Herr Hoffman himself; at one time in his life 
a man who looked like other men, but who had caught 
a vision of his Lord and had spent his life trans- 
ferring that vision to canvas. And through the years, 
as he had been pouring his soul into his task, the 
master Artist of all the world had reached down from 



182 SPECIAL SEEMONS 

heaven an invisible hand and had carved in the linea- 
ments of the painter's face the vision hidden in his 
heart. So we all, with unveiled faces beholding His 
image as in a mirror, are changed into His image from 
glory to glory. 

This is the true Christian education, the content 
of which is epitomized by Paul in his victory cry, 
'^I know Him.'^ It will come by the law and the 
grace of God to all those who will see and hear, under- 
stand with their hearts, and allow the vision of the 
perfect Man to work His will in their conduct and 
their character. There need be no struggle, no 
agonizing, no battle with tears and groans; nothing 
but a complete following of the rules to hear and 
see, to attend the house of God, the unceasing prayer, 
the daily reading of the Word, the deep, quiet brood- 
ing under the Spirit; in short, the following faithfully 
of the blessed means to keep the image of Him, who 
transforms us by the renewing of our thought of Him, 
clear and clean before the inner eye. 



7) fl". WELSHIMEB was horn Apr. 6, 1873, at Yorlc, 0., and 
Jl9 was educated in the public schools at West Mansfield, 0.; 
Ohio Northern University at Ada, and Hiram College, Hiram, 0. 
After graduating at Hiram, he was for five years minister of the 
church of Christ at Miller sdurg, 0,, and for twenty years has been 
in charge of the church at Canton, 0., where twice the growing 
congregation hus necessitated the erection of a new buUdvng. 

Mr. Welshimer has been president of the Ohio Christian Mis- 
sionary Convention ; president of the Efficiency Congress, Daven- 
port, la.; twice president of the Doctrinal Congress, Cincinnati 
and St. Louis; is noiv a member of the Board of Trustees of 
Bethany College; a member of the Board of Trustees of the Clarice 
Fund, Cincinnati, and a director in the Ohio Christian Missionary 
Society, 



183 



Commencement Day Address 

OUTLINE 

Introductian — Story of Aliab's Theft of Naboth's Vineyard. 
I. There can "be success and happiness in life without great 



n. Do you need another man's garden in order to have the 
opportunity for doing the worth-while things of life? 

m. One of the greatest needs of to-day is the need of men 
who are giving themselves to the discovery of men. 



184 



WORK YOUR OWN GARDEN 

Commencement Day Address by P. H. Welshimer 

Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of 
herbs.— 1 Kings 21 : 2. 

A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth. — ^Luke 12: 15. 

Godliness, with contentment, is great gain. — 1 Tim, 6: 6. 

THIS is a fine time to take a serious look at life. 
Men have long been discussing the questions, 
'^Whence came I?" ''What am I?" and ''Whither 
am I going?'' We shall now consider another ques- 
tion, which deals with making life count. 

We meet two classes of people: One class lives to 
make a living; the other, to make a life. Our happi- 
ness and success will depend largely upon the goal we 
place before us. The roads we travel contain both 
warnings of danger and evidences of safety ahead. 
Signs along the way proclaim the failures of some 
men who have preceded us and hold forth cheering 
notices of the success of others. If we have eyes with 
which to see and ears with which to hear, we can find 
abundant help in carrying forward our purpose to 
make life count. 

The sketch of Ahab's life presented in First Kings 
is worthy of study, not because of any success attend- 
ing him, but rather because he was a monumental 
fool — a man who did not know when he was well off. 
Here was a man whose life was wrapped up in things, 

185 



186 SPECIAL SERMONS 

not thoughts. His happiness was dependent upon the 
external, rather than the internal. There was not 
enough in the man him-self to give him any degree of 
comfort. He was a colossal example of covetonsness. 
The happiness of his life consisted in the abundance 
of the things which he possessed. He had neither god- 
liness nor contentment, and so gained nothing worth 
while. 

And the man was rich. He was a king. He had 
as mean a wife as ever walked beside a man, and she 
was of his own choosing. Her name was Jezebel and 
she ruled the household. He had a summer palace 
down at Jezreel. A man named Naboth owned a vine- 
yard which joined the palace grounds. As Ahab 
strutted through the palace yards he decided to secure 
from Naboth his beautiful vineyard, that it might be 
used for his own vegetable garden. He offered Naboth 
another vineyard and then proposed to purchase it 
with gold, but the vineyard was a precious heritage 
in the eyes of its owner. It had belonged to his 
fathers and was an old homestead, and he would 
neither trade nor sell. 

There is something sacred about an old homestead, 
the place where one's fathers lived, where he was born, 
spent his childhood, was reared to manhood and where 
he calmly waits the coming of age. What memories 
cluster there! What magic in the words — 'Hhe old 
home." Blessed is the man who can spend all the 
years of his life at the old homestead, the man who 
has never learned the art of wandering and roaming 
afar. Naboth 's old home was sacred to him and he 
would not sell. 

Ahab, the rich king, was a spoiled child. Throw- 
ing himself across the bed, he refused to eat because 



WORK YOUR OWN GARDEN 187 

he could not have this vegetable garden. Thus the 
desire for the spot where he had taken a notion to 
raise potatoes, cabbage, garlic, onions and lettuce 
spoiled the program of his life. But Ahab is not the 
only man on the great stage of life who has quit be- 
cause he could not have the things he most desired. 
There have been others also who have not learned how 
to rise above difficulties, to climb over obstacles. Herein 
lies the pathway to success. 

But the past master in all heinous, fiendish acts 
soon appeared on the scene — Jezebel, with the bloody 
hand. She wrote letters, sealing them with the king's 
seal, commanding the elders of the city to proclaim 
a great day and place neighbor Naboth on high, and 
to secure two evil men who would bear false witness 
against him. The day was set, people turned out en 
masse, and Naboth was honored. But suddenly two 
men arose and accused him of having blasphemed God 
and having sworn against the king. He was immedi- 
ately stoned to death, and Ahab took possession of the 
garden. But later the dogs, that licked up the blood 
of Naboth, likewise licked the blood that dripped from 
the floor of the chariot in which Ahab died. 

Prom an upper room in the palace, at the command 
of Jehu, the eunuchs threw the screaming Jezebel to 
the ground beneath, and while Jehu ate his feast with- 
in those palace walls, the dogs tore the flesh from her 
bones. The garden was given to Ahab, but what a 
price he paid. And yet, as men to-day turn the pages 
of history and see the bitter ending of these two lives, 
do they profit by their example ? In fancy we see writ- 
ten across the tombstones of Ahab and Jezebel the in- 
scription, *'They have done whom they could; but 
what's the use?'* 



188 SPECIAL SERMONS 

What was the trouble with Ahab? Simply this — 
his happiness was not complete without the acquisition 
of this particular little, old vegetable garden upon 
which he had set his heart. Here is a great under- 
lying principle which we do well to consider. 

I. There can be success and happiness in life 
without great possessions. 

Recently, at a banquet given in his honor in New 
York City, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., said: '^I don't 
envy my father his mother, for I have one just as 
good. I don't envy my father his wife, although she 
is a great woman; I have a wife just as good. I don't 
envy my father his children, for I have the best chil- 
dren in the world; but I do envy my father the op- 
portunity and the necessity he had when a boy, of 
earning a fortune and making good in life." Yet the 
very thing that John D. Rockefeller, Jr., envied most 
in his father is the thing which every youth has and 
doesn't know it. John Halifax, gentleman, when ques- 
tioned as to his purpose in life, said: ^*I hope to be 
like my father, a scholar and a gentleman; and if I 
get one foot on the ladder, I will climb." The pur- 
pose of the lad was his fortune. His vision was his 
life-preserver. 

In a southern Ohio town there lives a man worth 
a million dollars. He is the wealthy man of the coun- 
ty. People passing his home admire his spacious lawns 
and his magnificent gardens. The men v/ho dig in 
his mines envy him the luxury which he enjoys. "When 
strangers visit that town, the home of this rich man 
becomes the point of interest. One day his seventeen- 
year-old lad, while skating, fell, striking the back of 
his head upon the ice, producing blindness. The rich 
father traveled from city to city with his blind boy, 



WORK YOUR OWN GARDEN 189 

endeavoring to find the skill which would bring the 
light to those sightless orbs, but his search was in 
vain. Looking upon his son one day, he said to a 
friend standing near: '^If I could give sight back to 
that boy, I would cheerfully surrender every dollar I 
have in the world and to-morrow morning take my 
place in the mines, and with these hands dig with the 
men the remainder of my days. I would move from 
yon mansion on the hill to a humble cottage, and go 
forth in the morning with a dinner-pail on my arm, 
returning at night the happiest man in all the world." 

And yet there are hundreds of men in that county, 
looking forth from their humble cottages, surrounded 
by their children that know the joy of health, who 
have never stopped to take an inventory of their riches, 
but who think the man on the hill is the rich man of 
the community. They are the rich ones and do not 
know it. And many of us are rich, but our riches do 
not consist in gardens stolen from our neighbors. 

II. Do you need another man's garden in order 
to have the opportunity for doing the worth-while 
things of life? 

Many a man thinks the other fellow's windows are 
golden and that the sun never casts its warm reflection 
upon his own, while the fellow who lives in the house 
with the golden windows watches yours and envies 
you their glory. The opportunity for making good is 
where you live; it is in your own town; you but need 
eyes with which to see it. ''Distance lends enchant- 
ment.'' We are prone to think the big men all live 
a thousand miles away. It is a long ways to the Klon- 
dike, and the Klondike is wonderful. The place in 
which we live is dull, and the people are commonplace. 
Life here is humdrum. This is the way in which too 



190 SPECIAL SERMONS 

many people look upon their surroundings. ''Lift up 
your eyes and look upon the fields, they are white 
unto the harvest/' If you will make good, begin right 
here and now. 

Some years ago three brothers at Strasburg, 0., 
read of great stores in Philadelphia, New York City 
and Chicago, and decided they could have a great 
store in their little town of one thousand population. 
They laid their foundations; they advertised, and to- 
day Garver Brothers' store is known all over northern 
Ohio. Their store covers a town block, and people 
come for fifty miles by wagon, automobile and trolley 
to patronize it. They carry a stock of goods that 
would do credit to a city of a hundred thousand. It's 
a great department store, organized as systematically 
as Wanamaker 's or Field 's, all due to the genius of 
three boys who believed they could make good in their 
own garden, and they did. 

A thousand cities to-day enjoy the blessings of a 
public library, through the munificence of Andrew 
Carnegie. Many a man says: ''Mr. Carnegie's gift 
doesn't represent much. Had I his wealth, I too 
could build libraries." But would you do it? Are 
you as generous proportionately with what you have 
as was Mr. Carnegie? You are not measured by what 
you would do had you great possessions, but rather by 
what you are doing with what you have. "When An- 
drew Carnegie was a lad, carrying telegrams about the 
city of Pittsburgh, he heard of an attorney in that 
city who had a library of four hundred volumes. On 
Saturday afternoons the attorney stayed at home, 
where he received poor boys of the city, lending them 
books and giving them good advice. One day little 
Andy Carnegie, barefooted, climbed the steps that led 



WORK TOUR OWN GARDEN 191 

to the good man's house, and, securing a book, began 
laying the foundations of his education. When he be- 
came a man of wealth, one of his first impulses was 
to be as great a blessing to the boys of the world as 
his benefactor, with four hundred volumes, had been 
to him. And, consequently, his libraries throughout 
the United States have been more numerous than the 
altars of Abraham. If you can not build a library 
for your city or community, perhaps you might at 
least lend a few books and thus help some worthy fel- 
low up the ladder of life. 

Every man owes something to his city. Are you 
helping to build yours? Are you looking toward its 
to-morrow, and helping to lay foundations that will 
endure? Milford, N. H., has an enterprising group 
of men who believe in their home town, and who plan 
and work for its upbuilding. They are not quitters, 
withdrawing from hard tasks because their town is 
not a metropolitan city with skyscrapers and great 
boulevards, but they believe in Milford. Recently the 
son of a physician in that town went to Dartmouth, 
to take up forestry as his life-work. The Milford 
group of enterprising men said: ^'The old doctor is 
growing older every day; we shall soon need his suc- 
cessor.'^ So they wrote the son, laying the case before 
him, and urging him to prepare to assist the father in 
his old age, and later succeed him in caring for the 
health of their beloved town. The boy is to-day in 
Harvard Medical School planning to follow the sug- 
gestion of his fellow-townsmen. 

In the same town is a little factory, upon which a 
hundred families depend for their daily bread. The 
owner and manager is growing old. To-morrow some 
one must take his place or the factory will be closed. 



192 SPECIAL SERMONS 

His son was in college, studying finance. The above- 
mentioned forward-looking coterie of enterprising citi- 
zens saw an opportunity to help their town, and be- 
sought the boy to come back, become an understudy 
of his father and later take charge of the factory. 
The boy is now studying the factory business, and 
when the hands of his father are palsied, the wheels 
of the factory will continue to move and the business 
will thrive. 

All of this goes to demonstrate that the man with 
eyes need not seek other gardens in which to succeed. 
Let him dig in his own patch, and there he will find 
prosperity, contentment and happiness. 

Eighteen years ago there moved into Canton a 
young man from a rural district, who had been a 
teacher in the country schools. A young, but growing, 
industry of the city gave him a position as timekeeper 
over a group of foreigners. When the v/histle blew at 
quitting-time, every foreigner threw down his shovel 
and pick, and, like a child let loose from school, hied 
away to his home. The young schoolteacher dis- 
covered shortly that the company was losing much 
through the theft of tools. He suggested the building 
of a shed and the checking of all shovels and picks, so 
that every man would be held responsible for the im- 
plement he used. His company gave heed to his sug- 
gestion, and told him to do the checking. He came 
to work each morning an hour before the foreigners 
appeared and stayed when they had gone. He worked 
early and late without kicking about overtime. He 
was a second-mile man. He did the work because it 
needed to be done and because it would help his em- 
ployer's business. He was neither a slacker nor a 
knocker, but performed well the duty that lay nearest. 



WORK YOUR OWN GARDEN 193 

His ears listened for orders and not for the whistle, 
and his eye sought his work instead of the clock. He 
worked and thought, and, as he thought, he climbed. 
To-day our timekeeper, in his early forties, is vice- 
president, general manager and treasurer of this in- 
dustry, which employs eight thousand men. He was 
quite content to work in his own yard, but he toiled 
with a high motive and reached a high goal. 

III. One of the greatest needs of to-day is the 
need of men who are giving themselves to the djis- 
covery of men. 

Every community has its discouraged fellows. 
Life's road is lined with juniper-trees and each one 
has an Elijah beneath it. The fellow who most needs 
your help passes your door every day. He works in 
your field and your factory, attends the school in 
your town, and you call him by name, for you know 
him. A worth-while society wears the name, *^The 
Boosters' Club," and it is an honor to be a member 
of that organization. Few men ever discover them- 
selves, they have to be discovered; and to discover 
a man, a real man, means more to the world than 
the discovery of the North Pole. 

When Daniel Webster entered college, a big, awk- 
ward country boy, and with fear and trembling and 
a homesick feeling climbed the steps leading into the 
college building, Rufus King met him, and, placing 
his hand on his shoulder, said: '* Daniel, I know your 
father. Study hard and you will succeed." Years 
afterward, when Webster had risen to the zenith of 
his power, he said: '*I can still feel the pressure of 
the hand of Rufus King upon my shoulder; I can 
still hear the words that fell from his lips." It was 
but a slight touch and a brief sentence, but Rufus 

13 



194 SPECIAL SERMONS 

King helped to steady and to encourage the great 
Webster. 

David Grayson, in his wanderings through the 
country studying the lives of the people, stopped one 
afternoon in springtime before a dilapidated house, 
on the porch of which sat a discouraged farmer. 
About that dooryard there played some boys, who, 
though young in years, were depressed with the gloom 
that had settled down over their father's life. With- 
in the door there worked a woman, the wife and 
mother, who saw nothing before her but the clouds 
of despair. Every note that was sounded about that 
old, barren farm was a note of pessimism. David 
Grayson stood in the yard and lifted his eyes to the 
hills and to the arching skies that bent over all. He 
heard the songbirds' chorus, and, drinking in the 
beauty of the surrounding country, said, '^ Man, what 
a fine place in which to live!" To which the man 
replied, ^^Yes, a fine place in which to starve." Then 
Grayson perceived that the trouble lay not in the 
place, but in the man, for here was a discouraged 
farmer, who thought that wealth, ease, happiness and 
contentment lay beyond the hills in the noisy city. 
But two days spent with David Grayson, as he led 
that farmer and his boys through the orchard and 
into the fields, showing them how to break up the 
soil, to sow, to plant and to reap, were all that was 
necessary to throw the golden sunshine upon their 
windows and help them realize that they lived in one 
of the garden spots of the world. When David Gray- 
son left, the farmer was in his field at work, and as 
he looked back from the distant hill, the little boys, 
who had walked with him a distance down the road, 
were waving their hands good-by, for into their lives 



WORK YOUR OWN GARDEN 195 

and the life of their home had come a man who had 
been willing to walk out of his way to show a dis- 
couraged family how to make a success of life. The 
world has no greater men than the men of the David 
Grayson spirit. They are royal souls, who, in pass- 
ing, bless us as their shadows fall upon us. And, to 
a great degree, every man can be a David Grayson — 
if he will. 

One hundred years ago, on a barren island five 
miles out in the sea from the Netherlands, there lived 
a band of pirates. The Netherlands Government com- 
missioned a young attorney, twenty-one years of age, 
to become judge and mayor of the island, and to ex- 
terminate the pirates, thus protecting the lives of men 
who were cast ashore with the wreckage that came 
in from the sea. He cleaned up the island, went back 
over the channel and returned with his young wife, 
and there began his life's work of making the island 
a beautiful place in which to live. Year after year 
he planted trees. The barren island became a garden 
of beauty. Others of like tastes moved thither, and 
built their homes. To-day the ornithologists of the 
world go to that island to study the great variety of 
beautiful birds, of rare plumage and charming song. 
Into the home of that enterprising young man came 
seven children in thirteen years. One evening the 
mother gathered the children around the fireside, and 
told them the story of their father's life, of his am- 
bition, his purpose, and she said, '^Your father's en- 
deavor is to make this island one of the best and most 
beautiful places in the world in which to live." 

The children, in later years, left the family fire- 
side. One became a great lawyer in South Africa and 
a leader in the Boer War; another became a law- 



196 SPECIAL SERMONS 

yer in the Netherlands; one became a minister; an- 
other, a minister's wife; one gave her life to the beau- 
tiful, but arduous, task of caring for the blind. An- 
other, with his wife and two little boys, came to Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., where in early manhood he died. His wife 
one day told the story of their grandfather's purpose 
and achievements to her two little boys, one of whom 
was Edward Bok — for thirty years editor of the Ladies' 
Home Journaly and recognized as one of the most influ- 
ential citizens of Philadelphia. 

This lad knew the pangs of poverty, and early in 
life learned the art of doing good. He sold ice-water 
to the thirsty crowd on the street-cars in Brooklyn. 
He washed windows and wrapped up meat in the 
butcher shop for fifty cents a week. He picked up 
coal from the gutters in the streets of Brooklyn and 
carried it home for the mother to use in cooking their 
daily meal. He has probably done as much as any 
other man or group of men in beautifying America, 
through the editorial pages of his magazine. Two 
millions of homes have profited by his thoughtfulness 
and concern for the people of America. He began 
where he lived and set before him the ideal of his 
grandfather to make the world a better and a more 
beautiful place in which to live. 

This Dutch boy from Holland had what Ahab had 
not. He learned contentment in being godly. He 
knew that thoughts were bigger than things, and that 
the life that counts most counts not because it is tied 
up to possessions, but because it spends itself in real 
helpfulness to humanity. 

You may make the mistake of your life if you 
imagine that no one can become an eminent success ex- 
cept that one upon whom accidental fortune smiles. A 



WORK YOUR OWN GARDEN 197 

newsboy lived over a stable in London. He became ap- 
prenticed to a book-binder for seven years and toiled 
away at his monotonous task. He caught glimpses of 
paragraphs in books and read as he had opportunity. 
While binding the Encyclopedia Britannica, his eye fell 
upon the article ^^Electricity." He became interested, 
tried simple experiments, attracted attention by his 
earnestness, and was pointed out to Sir Humphrey 
Davy, who helped him to help himself. This boy, 
Michael Faraday, pushed his way along until Tyndall 
said of him: '*He is the greatest experimental philoso- 
pher the world has ever seen." 

You live in a great world. Bigger and better op- 
portunities never were laid before young people. In 
America you can be what you want to be if you 
want to be hard enough. We bring to you the chal- 
lenge: The ladder is placed by the side of the wall, 
you have one foot upon it, it is up to you — will 
yon climb? 



GEORGE HAMILTON COMBS was horn at Camplellsburg, 
Ky.y July 27 J 1864, and mas educated at Fairmont College, 
Ky.; Kentucky University , Lexington , Ky., and Wooster Uni- 
versity, Wooster, 0., where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1889. 
In 1900 y Brake University, Des Moines, la., conferred upon him 
the degree of LL.D. He has held three pastorates. First, with 
the church of Christ, Shelhyville, Ky., 1886-1891; second. Inde- 
pendence Boulevard, Kansas City, Mo., 1892-1919; Country Club, 
Kansas City, Mo., 1921 to the present time. 

Mr. Comhs has served a^ university preacher and lecturer at 
University of Chicago, Wesley an University, University of Texas, 
Vanderhilt University, University of Kansas, Washington Uni- 
versity and other educational institutions. He is the author of 
a mmber of books, and is an editorial writer of note, 



199 



Baccalaureate Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introduction — **Life Is an Arrow." 

I. lilfe Must Have a Mark. 

1. Object, expression, not repression. 

2. Wise choices and tlie grace of exclusion. 

3. Largest development of Mgbest self. 

rC. liife Must Have a Way. 

1. Is any life a predestined failure? 

2. FataUsm in present^ay literature. 

3. Life's way not blocked. 

m. Life Must Have Aim and Power. 

1. Great convictions. 

2. Self-realization. 

3. Duty. 

d. Tlie durable satisfactions of life. 



200 



w 



WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? 

Baccalaureate Sermon by George H. Combs 

What is your life? — Jas. 4: 14. 

HAT, indeed! There are many answers, ancient 
and modern, and here's one: 

'*Life is an arrow; therefore you must know 
What mark to aim at, how to draw the bow, 
Then draw it to its head and let it go.'' 

Henry van Dyke, whose lines I have jnst quoted, 
is the author of a book called *' Straight Sermons." 
He is also a maker of straight verse — ^verse that ar- 
row-like goes singing to the mark. Let ns accept his 
simile then. Life is an arrow, and, like the arrow, 
must have an aim, must have a way traversable, must 
have DOwer to send it straisrht and on. 

I. Life must have a mark. 

A ship without a port, a traveler without a desti- 
nation, a builder without a plan, a runner without a 
goal, a marksman without a mark — that is tragedy. 

What, then, is the aim of life? We are knocking 
here at a big ^ate and yet need not knock with timid 
hand. Life is no blind alley. It leads on by pre- 
destined path to a great eroal, and that goal, casting 
aside all negative definitions, is the fullest possible 
realization of the highest self. The end of life is ex- 
pression and not repression, self-realization and not 
?elf-denial. 

201 



202 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Repressions, self-limitings, self-denials, are of value 
only as they make for higher realization. The athlete 
denies himself many bodily pleasures, but the merit 
is not in the denial; the merit is in the higher realiza- 
tions. The scholar denies himself ease and pleasure, 
yet his reward is not in the sacrifice, but in the greater 
garnered wisdom. God wants a full life, not an empty 
life— a life whose lowest and whose topmost notes 
are alike resonant and full. If the devil is not in 
a vacuum, neither is God. 

Here are we all at life's beginnings with definite 
potentialities, and our supreme concern is their edu- 
cation and development. To make the most of the 
life stuff given us is life's true aim. To unfold our 
native powers is our highest privilege. 

This demands, at the very outset, the wisdom of 
choice and the grace of exclusion. We can not de- 
velop to their utmost stretch of possibilities all of 
life's gifts. If a man makes of his arm, his leg, all 
that can be made of the arm, the leg, he has time 
left for little else. To bring every organ and capa- 
bility of the body to full-orbed development were a 
task too great for our short lives. To cultivate to its 
last inch of yielding richness a single faculty of the 
mind — ^memory, say — would eat up all the hours. 
Unable to bring all, we are shut up to selection, and 
choice must be of the best. 

This, then, is the mark at which to aim life's ar- 
rows ; the amplest, the largest development of the high- 
est self — ^the sounding of the mountain notes with 
trumpet force and volume — ^the living of a full life 
whose fullness comes through Him who said, *'I have 
come that ye might have life, and that ye might have 
it more abundantly." 



WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? 203 

II. Life, though it have a mark, must also have 
a way. 

A way hindered and barricaded, it may be, and yet 
traversable. Here the arrow simile does not hold al- 
together good. As the arrow speeds from the bow it 
meets with no resistance save that of the soft air, but 
life's arrows too often fall split and battered at the 
foot of an unyielding wall. Is it indeed like that? 
Is there ever an effectual hindering of a noble aim? 
Is any life aim foredoomed to failure? Is the way 
blocked? 

If God has set before us all a single aim — the high- 
est realization of the highest self — and then has thrust 
us into a universe where the aim can not be realized 
by all, then is he a partial God, and malignant too! 
If any life is a predestined failure (and not to send 
the arrow to the mark is a failure), then no sort of 
casuistry, of suppleness of preacher explanations, can 
justify the God of things as they are. To put into 
the heart of a man an instinct, and then provide 
no place in life for its realization, were unworthy 
a God who creates the instinct of the birds to fly 
and the fish to swim, and then provides the yield- 
ing atmosphere and supporting sea. The good God 
does not mock us so. Nor is there apology for a weak 
yielding to the present-day dolorous gospel of man's 
helplessness. The world grows aghast at the doctrines 
of exclusion and life-limitation, but accepts with 
apathetic complacency a darker gospel when whispered 
by the sibyl Fate. 

It is undeniable that the shadow of fatalism rests 
on much of our present-day literature. The great Eus- 
sian fiction, the Ibsen dramas, Thomas Hardy's novels 
— in the heart of all this work and these workers is 



204 SPECIAL SERMONS 

the sense of a pitiless, close-grappling, slowly choking 
Fate. Men are mere puppets, and an unseen force 
pulls the strings. The something that pulls the strings 
is It. It is blind. It has a marble heart. It hears no 
prayers. "We think ourselves free and bravely flaunt 
the delusions of our liberty, but It chuckles in the dark- 
ness, knowing we are but slaves. We sit down at life's 
loom and with feverish fingers send the shuttle to 
and fro. But in the morrow's light we discern that 
It designed the pattern and shot it through and 
through with a hateful black. We are helpless. We 
are in the malignant grip of the past. The flower 
and the weed are no more surely nourished, and their 
beauty or ugliness predetermined by the soil in which 
they grow, than is man determined by the ancestral 
soil, mold of a thousand years, out of which he 
springs. 

We are gripped, they say, by the things without. 
The towering brig is on ocean ways with all its can- 
vas spread. Shall it droop its wings or shall it fly? 
That is as the wind determines. So on life's sea our 
boats lie idly rocking, or gloriously they sail on as the 
council of the winds shall decree. 

Our freedom, we are further told, is but as the 
freedom of a drop of water in a glass tube. 

False, false to the very core! Life's failures are 
not from without, but from within. The failure of 
Solomon was not in the past; the past was noble, 
heroic, filled with shepherds' songs and psalmists' 
prayers, trumpet-tongued in ethical appeal. The fail- 
ure was within. 

Life's way is not blocked. Tolstoi, in his ''War 
and Peace," writing of Napoleon's disastrous Russian 



WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? 205 

campaign, says that the whole campaign was against 
Napoleon's will, that he wanted to invade England, 
that only a higher will pushed him on toward IVIbs- 
cow's flames. Was that higher will Kismet, Fate? 
It is not thus. The power behind Napoleon was Na- 
poleon. It was through the force of his own genius, 
his own determination, that he climbed from the ob- 
scurity of Corsica to the eminence of Versailles. It 
was Napoleon, not Fate, that battered down Toulon, 
climbed the Alps, fought the battle of the Pyramids, 
and set high in the heavens his star of glory above 
the field of Austerlitz. It was Napoleon, not Fate, 
who, drunk with ambition, pitted his armies against 
God's almighty snows, blundered in reckonings and 
in orders on the field of Waterloo, and who at last 
in storm-girt Helena, his glory gone, out of his own 
baffled ambitions and keen remorses wove the winding- 
sheet for his own body, and sank self-slaughtered 
in a self-digged grave. 

m. Life must have an aim, must have power 
to send it on. 

The great bow of Ulysses means nothing without 
Ulysses to bend it and send the arrow to the mark. 
The cleared course is mockery, the goal but tantaliz- 
ing, without a force to send fast the feet straight on. 
The world's supreme need is power. 

And how comes power? When John Ruskin, the 
great art critic and yet greater philosopher, looking 
with almost adoration upon a great cathedral, was 
asked by a friend why we do not build such great 
cathedrals now, he answered, *'The men who built 
these cathedrals were men of great convi<3tions. " Here 
in a sentence is the philosophy of great living. All 
true greatness is rooted in great convictions. Lack- 



206 SPECIAL SERMONS 

ing such greatness, we build meanly, whether it be 
cathedral or character. As great convictions wax, men 
kindle into nobleness of thought and word and deed, 
and as great convictions wane, men shrivel into lit- 
tleness in all their words and ways. 

"What, then, are the convictions that forward men 
in high enterprise? To begin, the conviction of an 
ageless, endless life. The characteristic of all Chinese 
pictures is their flatness, shallowness, fatal lackings 
of depth. The canvas is a mere surface thing with- 
out a single depth for the anchorage of a recollection. 
Now, human life, without those noble perspectives and 
subtle blends of light and shadow given by the sense 
of eternity, like the Chinese picture, lacks depth, in- 
terest and meaning. There is no possible greatness 
for evanescence. The thing that lives only for the 
hour, though it may not be without the hint of charm, 
can never powerfully stir the life. There can be no 
greatness without great dimensions, and if the life 
of the human stops at the yellow grave, in such mean- 
ness of dimensions can be found nothing truly great. 
Let the life of man be bounded by the threescore 
years and ten, and nothing truly heroic will spring 
from his hands or brain. The tombs of Egypt's kings 
are noble because they were constructed to last 
through the eternities and by those who dreamed that 
they should never die. The picture that is painted 
only for a day lives for but a day; the enduring 
pictures are those whose colors were mixed with the 
dream of eternity. The art that lasts was designed 
to last, and the artist who has not wrought for pos- 
terity will be forgotten by posterity. Only immortals 
will build immortal temples. 



WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? 207 

^' Leave now to dags and apes; 
Man has forever.'' 

Only those who are rich with that consciousness 
can be great. The man who has *' forever'' can do an 
enduring work. 

Again, self-realization is possible only to those to 
whom self-realization is a high end and not merely 
a procuring means. Virtue is its own reward. Work 
is its own reward. We all need to know that the 
good of work is not what it puts into our pockets, but 
into our characters. The wage is of less concern than 
the work. Life's tasks may or may not have money 
reward, but they all have character reward. The 
young man's chief concern should not be with what 
the task may yield in gold, but what it may yield 
in goodness. The toiler may be robbed of his money 
wage, but if he has wrought sincerely he can not be 
cheated out of his character reward. That which gets 
into the blood is of greater value than that which gets 
into the purse. Excellence needs no bonus of outside 
commendation. Life's fields are not strewn with gold 
nuggets to enrich outwardly, but with disciplines to 
enrich inwardly. The summum bonum is not in get- 
ting, but in being. 

The highest reward of faith is faith; of truthful- 
ness, truthfulness; of courage, courage. ''The king- 
dom of heaven is within you." Heaven is no merely 
extraneous and outside reward for right-doing, it is 
the intrinsic and inside necessity and complement of 
righteousness. Good thoughts, good words, good deeds 
are the seeds from which spring the trees of life. Let 
a man then come to the realization of his highest self, 
not to say, ''Lord, now I am good; give me heaven as 
a reward/' but rather to say, "For the heaven Thou 



208 SPECIAL SERMONS 

hast permitted me to enter through my struggles, 
Lord, I thank Thee." The tallest angel near the throne 
receives no higher wage than the coin of righteous- 
ness. Heaven's most bejeweled crown is the crown 
of character. Goodness is God. 

Yet, though this profound truth should have its 
way with us, it by no means will crowd out that other 
world-old incentive, the call of Duty. Herein is the 
strength of a double call — the call of the work, the 
call of God. *^Come up higher" is ever the call from 
above to our too low lives. It is your duty to make 
the most of yourself. You can not stop at mere sal- 
vation. You are not merely to seek to save the soul 
you have, but to save a soul that is worth the sav- 
ing. What would you think of an athlete who cul- 
tures his body merely for the sake of saving it! He 
seeks not to conserve and save, but to enlarge and 
develop. The scholar at his books with no higher 
aim than the salvation of his mind from imbecility 
were a sorry spectacle. Nor less abject and contempt- 
ible the soul that seeks only the salvation of its little 
self. ''Come up higher" is the insistent invitation. 
Through struggles and disciplines, cross-bearings and 
the bitterness of tears, strain towards a nobler, high- 
er life. It is your duty. 

This is a very antiquated gospel, I know. Duty, 
we are told, is a quiet, old-fashioned divinity and soon 
it shall be ejected from our modern Pantheons, that 
the more comely divinity, Persuasion, may take its 
place. *'No man," said an advanced preacher not long 
ago, ''can now make much of austere duty. The 
oughts and ought nots no longer speak convincingly. 
Sinai is a long way off. We must persuade man." 
Indeed! What a deliverance! Here impiety and im- 



WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? 209 

becility seem mixed in equal proportions. Analyze 
conscience as yon will, and give it whatever physical 
origins you will in your flippant philosophies, the eter- 
nal granite truth abides, writ large in the constitu- 
tion of the human soul as if in fire letters across the 
sky, that man, in this voice we call Duty, feels the 
impact of heavenly forces upon his soul, and only as 
he yields to the mighty urge comes the realization 
of his highest self. 

ThA mighty movements that have convulsed the 
world have received their great inspiration from this 
supreme imperative. Whenever men have gone for- 
ward in any enterprise, moved by a great sense of 
duty, they have gone resistlessly. Let the human soul 
be mastered by the conviction that God wills that a 
work be done, and that soul is almost godlike in its 
strength. 

' ' God wills it, ' ' and before the gleaming crescent of 
the Moslem the degenerate Christians give coward way. 

*'God wills it,'' and the Crusade rolls its lava 
flood against the walls of the Holy City. 

''God wills it,'' and the timid shepherd girl is 
transformed into the warrior maid against whose val- 
iant leadership the English fling their strength in 
vain. 

''God wills it," and the obscure Cromwell is forged 
into a live thunderbolt of heaven to strike down kings 
and ancient wrongs. 

Duty, an ineffectual voice? Beneath the sky of 
God there is no other voice so sovereign — ^no voice 
that speaks to our soul's soul. 

**I slept and dreamed that life was beauty; 
I woke and found that life was duty. ' ' 
14 



210 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Both the dream and the waking were true. The 
danger is in these days of smooth content that 
we shall close our eyes to the morning truth and for- 
get that life is duty. 

Duty is ever heroic, but it demands no im- 
possibilities. 

*'So near is glory to our dust, 
So close is Grod to maiij 
When Duty whispers low, 'Thou must,' 
The youth replies: *I can.' '' 

You can, you can. Mark you, I did not say you 
can do it easily, unstrivingly, but you can. It will 
take striving, battling. God in heaven only knows 
how fierce ofttimes, but you can do your duty. 

''Then, welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough. 
Each sting that bids, nor sit, nor stand, but go. 

Be our joys three parts pain! 

Strive, and hold cheap the strain; 
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe.'' 

One other great conviction I mention: through self- 
realization are the durable satisfactions of life. This 
phrase, ''the durable satisfactions of life," coined by 
one of our college presidents, is well worth your re- 
membering. Life, beyond question, has its pleasures 
along low levels. There is pleasure in drunkenness, 
else men would not get drunk; there is pleasure in 
debauchery, else men would not be debauchees; there 
is pleasure in money-getting, else men would not wear 
out their lives to get it. Let us admit that there is 
a pleasure to be found on the planes of mere animal- 
ism and of sin. If the devil's bait were not good to 
taste, no soul would grab at the hook. 



WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? 211 

But while there are satisfactions here, they are not 
durable satisfactions. After passion has spent its force, 
after debauchery has had its fling, after animalism has 
sated itself, happiness dwells afar. 

Even on the higher levels where is no curse of 
wrong, durable satisfactions are not found. The 
pleasures men get in money-making, in professional 
and business advancements, in ''getting on," as we 
say, are not durable pleasures. Contemporary litera- 
ture is choked with the sobs of disillusionment. But 
there are satisfactions in Christ's service that are 
durable. ''Happy in Him?^^ Yes, and that happi- 
ness stays. 



r)OBEET E. ELMOBE was horn Jan. 9, 1878, at New Castle, 
J\ Craig County, Va, He received his collegiate training at 
Milligov; College, Milligan, Tenn, 

He was minister of the church of Christ at Tazewell, Va,, five 
years; at the First Church, Eoanolce, Va., seven years; Walnui 
Hills Church, Cincinnati, 0., eight years, and Phwnix, Ariz., one 
year. He is ju>st entering upon his ministry with the church at 
Carlisle, Ky, 



213 



Independence Day Address 

OUTLINE 

I. Underlying the doctrine ef human liberty is tlie grand 
oonoeption of Imman worth. 

II. With profound insight the founders of the republic traced 
the American ideal to divine revelation. 

IIL Our national unity is maintained and promoted by 
mutual service, which is the bond of perfectness. 

IV. We miss the high summons if our hearts are set on 
material things. 



21/ 



THE AMERICAN IDEAL 

Independence Day Address by R. E. Elmore 

Honor all men. — 1 Pet. 2: 17. 

WHEN John Brashear, roller-mill workman and 
astronomer of Pittsburgh, affectionately known 
to the people as ''Uncle John," was offered an hon- 
orary degree by the University of Pennsylvania with 
the request that he select the title, this plain philan- 
thropist replied: ''I do not know whether yoia confer 
such degree, but, if so, I would like the degree. Doc- 
tor of Humanity." 

On presenting to the Continental Congress a res- 
olution directing that the sessions be opened with daily 
prayers to almighty God, Benjamin Franklin said: 
''If a sparrow can not fall without His notice, is it 
probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" 

A tablet marking the ruins of Jamestown, the 
cradle of the Republic, bears the inscription: "In 
honor of Chanco, the Christian Indian boy, whose 
warning saved the colony of Virginia from destruc- 
tion in the massacre of 22nd Mch., 1622." 

Lincoln at Gettysburg molded the sentiment in 
immortal language: "Our fathers brought forth upon 
this continent a nation, conceived in liberty and dedi- 
cated to the proposition that all men are created 
equal." 

Emerging from the heroic Colonial background, 
taking form in the covenant of constitutional govern- 

215 



216 SPECIAL SERMONS 

ment, developing in strength and beauty throngli 
seven-score years of national history, the American 
ideal — honor all men — rises like a tower of nniversal 
hope, ''bathed all in light, with open gates of gold/' 

I. 

Underlying the doctrines of human liberty is the 
grand conception of human worth. The Venus de 
Milo, though broken, is still priceless and immortal. 

But the eyes of the multitudes have been holden. 
The veil of materialism covers the heart and obscures 
the greatness of human nature. Time and circum- 
stance, the accident of birth or station, and degraded 
worldly standards, vitiate the popular judgment. ''The 
greatest man I ever knew," remarked an eminent 
journalist, "I indifferently passed, or feigned some 
condescension, and hesitated to know socially.'' This 
is the most pitiable aspect of our fallen race. Few 
minds are willing to pay the price of investigation, of 
going behind external trappings and defying the 
social verdict in search of the invisible and timeless 
beauties of the soul of the common man. Lord Mor- 
ley's characterization of Voltaire describes the cult 
of unbelief: "He has no ear for the finer vibrations 
of the spiritual voice." Content with hearsay evi- 
dences, we miss the essential glory of human life. 
"And hast thou not known me?" is man's inarticu- 
late cry to man. 

Inhumanity is the rock on which mighty nations 
have been broken and ground to powder. It is the 
crude and hateful opinion of the materialist that 
might makes right, that the strong should prevail over 
the weak, that the fit must climb to dominion over the 
bodies of the unfit — this falsehood of the so-called 



THE AMEEICAN IDEAL 217 

scientist, this doctrine of tlie unlearned educator, this 
philosophy of the cult of paganism — it is from this 
polluted fountain that all oppression flows. Moved 
by such spirit, a nation may rise to the peak of 
worldly power by the spoils of tyranny, by inhuman- 
ity to man;' but disaster will at last overtake that 
people which sacrifices the human element and sub- 
ordinates personality to property. Even Plato's ideal 
state, conceived in the atmosphere of the most en- 
lightened nation of antiquity in the height of its 
splendor, proposed a government by elect souls who 
do no work while depending on craftsmen and slaves 
for all menial labor. 

The progress of the race has waited upon those 
shining souls who lift all men above the price-labels 
of the marketplace; who value a man more than a 
sheep; who despise the sophistry of the self-seeker, 
be his brutality the soft voice of the conceited scholar 
or the iron hand of the pillaging warrior; who know 
that a human being is worth more than all the piled- 
up material riches of an empire, and who are willing 
to die for their faith. The thin, red line of liberty 
comes up unbroken through the centuries, traced by 
the sacrifice of the lonely martyrs, who chose death 
rather than the dishonor of oppression. Christiana 
and her children came to the scene of Christian's 
combat with ApoUyon. *' There are footprints on the 
path. Pilgrims have gone this way before us." 
''Look," said Greatheart, ''did not I tell you? Here 
is some of your husband's blood upon these stones! 
Verily Christian did here play the man." 

Says Mommsen: "The grandest system of civili- 
zation has its orbit and may complete its course; but 
not so the human race, to which, just when it seems 



218 SPECIAL SERMONS 

to have reached its goal, the old task is ever set anew 
with a wider range and with a deeper meaning." 

The old task took its wider range and deeper 
meaning in the Declaration of Independence, whose 
good tidings of human worth and freedom we honor 
in onr hearts to-day. 

The nation has upheld its faith unstained and at 
utmost cost from Saratoga to Sedan. We hate war, 
but we hate tyranny more; we love peace, but we 
love righteousness more. Writing of the American 
soldiers' part in the battles of the final campaign 
against Kaiserism, a London editor said: ^' These 
troops, but newly trained, inheriting no long military 
tradition and molded by no iron-bound system, have 
overcome the pick of the German legions." These 
troops were sprung from a people trained in the school 
of self-government, inheriting the holy tradition of 
human rights, safeguarded under the majesty of 
equitable law and molded by the system which honors 
all men and which gives to the world its Washington 
and Lincoln and Roosevelt. 

The awe experienced by Bayard Taylor when first 
looking up at the colossal arch of marble and gold of 
St. Peter's must be felt by all true Americans when 
walking amid the splendors of the invisible temple of 
our national faith, whose foundation is the supreme 
valuation of man made in the image of God, whose 
corner-stone is freedom, and whose superstructure is 
the fellowship of righteousness and the fraternity of 
peace and good will. We feel exalted, ennobled. 
''Beings in the form we wear, planned the glorious 
edifice, and it seems that in godlike power and per- 
severance they were indeed but a little lower than the 
angels." 



THE AMERICAN IDEAL 219 

II. 

"With profound insight the founders of the 
Republic traced the American ideal to divine revela- 
tion, and, with precision, embodied in the national 
conscience their confession of faith in the Christian's 
God. 

The author of the Declaration bore witness that 
''the God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the 
same time." Guarded with reverent care, sheltering 
the national tradition, the tower of the old Christian 
church at Jamestown is a perpetual monument of 
our people's faith in Jesus Christ — ^America's first and 
best statue of liberty. The compact framed by the 
Pilgrims before leaving the ''Mayflower" declared that 
the voyage had been undertaken "for the glory of 
God and the advancement of the Christian faith." 
According to the recital of the charter of William 
and Mary College, founded in Virginia in 1692, the 
institution was established "to the end that the 
church of Virginia may be furnished with a semi- 
nary of ministers of the gospel, and that the youth 
may be piously educated in good letters and man- 
ners, and that the Christian faith may be propa- 
gated among the Western Indians to the glory of al- 
mighty God." The Patrick Henry pew is marked 
in St. John's Church, Richmond, and that of Betsy 
Ross in old Christ Church, Philadelphia. Bancroft 
asserts that "every great American enterprise began 
from God." Washington prayed at Valley Forge. 
Before assuming the duties of the Presidency, to his 
friends at Springfield, Lincoln said: "Without the 
assistance of that divine Being who ever attended him 
(Washington), I can not succeed." Our Presidents 



220 SPECIAL SERMONS 

take the oath of office with their lips pressed upon 
the pages of the open Bible. To his fellow-citizens 
at Marion, President-elect Harding thns pledged his 
faith: ''I want you to know that there is an individ- 
ual who believes in the reconseeration of a religious 
republic. I have for my inheritance a Christian be- 
lief, and I have in my veins the blood of Christian 
parentage. '^ In his inaugural he made this avowal: 
''I accept my part with singleness of purpose and 
humility of spirit, and implore the favor and guidance 
of God." Andrew Jackson affirmed that ''the Bible 
is the rock on which the Republic rests." Grant ex- 
horted his countrymen to ''hold fast to the Bible as 
the sheet-anchor of their liberties." 

The Christian Scriptures are the spring and root 
of human happiness and progress. It is here we find 
the ennobling doctrines of man's high origin, his god- 
like nature and his glorious destiny. "Honor all 
men" is the enlightened word of a once exclusive Jew 
now emancipated by Christian truth, truth incarnate 
in Jesus, the Son of God, the author of the parables 
of the prodigal son and the good Samaritan; whose 
beautiful words were fulfilled in benevolent deeds ; who 
honored the lame and blind and halt, the broken 
and unfit and outcast; who stamped with divine worth 
the common man— the Redeemer and Liberator and 
Restorer of the fallen race. 

The Pharisee forever hates the humanitarian. Cel- 
sus, to the end of time, will ridicule the advocate 
of spiritual values, who finds infinite possibilities and 
awakens infinite hope in the hearts of the lowly and 
obscure; but the Christ whom we adore keeps driving 
home the gospel of the sanctity of human life, the 
greatness of the soul. 



THE AMERICAN IDEAL 221 

By the great mountains the acacia forever burns, 
and from its inextinguishable flame God calls to him 
who has ears to hear and a heart to understand: 
*'I will send thee that thou mayest bring forth my 
people/' This is the faith of our fathers; this is 
America's holy faith. 

III. 

Our national unity rests upon the conception 
of the worth of the common man,^ expresses itself in 
freedom under the discipline of democratic rule and 
is maintained and promoted by mutual service, which 
is the bond of perfectness. 

''Honor all men" flowers in ministry to all men. 
''I am among you as one who serves" is the self- 
revelation of Him whose humane teaching is woven 
into the fabric of the American ideal. 

An ancient seer thus describes the ideal state: 
''They help every one his neighbor, and every one 
saith to his brother, Be of good courage. So the car- 
penter encourageth the goldsmith, and he that smooth- 
eth with the hammer him that smiteth the anvil, 
saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fasteneth 
it with nails, that it should not be moved." 

The principle of equal rights has been variously 
and happily applied, in the privilege of public trust, 
in our jurisprudence, in professional and industrial 
opportunity, and in religion, where freedom is granted 
to every man to worship Grod in accord with his 
conscience. Our duty is to carry the principle, as a 
working reality, more and more into every department 
of life. But parallel with equal rights must be ap- 
plied the principle of co-operative service. The per- 
fection and extension of this principle, in the experi- 



222 SPECIAL SERMONS 

ence of the entire citizenship, must be the concern 
of all. ''Come and comfort me'' was Burns' appeal 
to Cunningham. It is the common heart-cry of man 
to man. We must not, we can not, refuse to hear. 

In an ancient Jewish city lived a man named 
Joseph. He became famous for helping people. One 
day some of his friends led this modest man to the 
front in a public assembly and invested him with 
knighthood. ''Let him no longer be called Joseph, but 
Sir Barnabas," said they; "Barnabas the En- 
courager. ' ' 

Ruthless self-interest is the law of the jungle. 
Competition, which sets at naught one's neighbor, is 
on the same level. "We rise from the jungle life as 
we abandon the jungle law. 

All men who have attained true eminence trace 
their success to the help which took its rise outside 
of themselves. Plutarch, the mild and humane 
philosopher, has left on record this testimony of all 
great souls: "Though fortune has, on many occasions, 
been favorable to me, yet I have no obligations to 
her so great as the enjoyment of my brother Timon's 
invariable friendship and kindness." "Greet Onesi- 
phorus," said Paul, "for he oft refreshed me." 

No dreamer can overcolor the prosperity and hap- 
piness in store for a nation true to this sacred view 
of life, a people who build each other up, who help 
forward one another worthily of God. 

In that noble parchment, the Roman letter, Saul 
of Tarsus appropriately brings his stately argument 
to its climax, in the closing chapter, by the exhibit 
of a list of persons in whose hearts lived the great 
doctrine and in whose acts the great doctrine found 
avenues of practical expression — his friends, the 



THE AMERICAN IDEAL 223 

princely line of fellow-helpers. The personal notes 
conclude with a salutation from ''Quartus the 
brother/' a biography in three words, than which 
there is none nobler. A half-million words could not 
honor him more or reveal more glory to the discern- 
ing reader. 

''Walking through a country churchyard last 
week/' wrote "Walter Bagehot, ''I saw the most de- 
lightful epitaph I ever remember. It was simply 
this: 'George Phillip Tyson died Oct. 7, 1871. He 
was a helpful man.' This is the only epitaph I ever 
envied." 

IV. 

The privilege and responsibility of citizenship in 
a state which recognizes the principle — "honor all 
men" — can not be overemphasized. "The land we 
live in," said Grover Cleveland, "seems to be strong 
and active. But how fares the land that lives in us?" 

We miss the high summons if our hearts are set 
mainly on material things. The inspiration of the 
American ideal is in the ends at which we aim — the 
larger inner life, the liberty of spirit, the happiness 
of the soul. The test is spiritual. How fares the 
land that lives in usi 

"The first warning of Rome's ruin," said Gib- 
bon, "was not in the hostile armies mobilizing against 
her, but in the feasting and boasting and riotous 
living in her vicious capital." America's worst foes 
are they of her own household who find no place 
for reverence, who hold the unspiritual estimate of 
human life and who follow the low-set purpose of 
self-seeking and personal profit to the disadvantage 
of their fellow-citizens. 



224 SPECIAL SERMONS 

''Let not the wise man [or nation] glory in his 
wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his 
might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but 
let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he nnder- 
standeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord who 
exerciseth mercy, judgment, and righteousness in the 
earth, for in these things I delight." Worldly wis- 
dom can not make a people great, nor might, nor 
riches, nor scientific knowledge, nor progress in let- 
ters and art, nor efficiency in politics and industry. 
A nation's life consisteth not in an abundance of 
things. Is the Government God-fearing, are its insti- 
tutions humane, do our social and economic relations 
proceed from a common conviction of human worth 
and kinship, and operate in behalf of the public 
weal? Browning profoundly observes that ''love with 
defective knowledge is of more spiritual worth than 
knowledge with defective love," which is another way 
of saying that mutual esteem and affection and ser- 
vice are worth more than all the accumulated knowl- 
edge and fine-spun worldly wisdom of all the theorists. 

Theodore Roosevelt said: "After a certain, not 
very high, level of material well-being has been reached, 
then the things that really count in life are the things 
of the spirit. Factories and railways are good up 
to a certain point; but courage and endurance, love 
of wife and child, love of home and country, love of 
lover for sweetheart, love of beauty in man's work 
and in nature, love and emulation of daring and of 
lofty endeavor, the homely workaday virtues and the 
heroic virtues — ^these are better still, and if they are 
lacking, no piled-up riches, no roaring, clanging in- 
dustrialism, no feverish and many-sided activity, shall 
avail either the individual or the nation. I do not 



THE AMERICAN IDEAL 225 

undervalue these things of a nation's body; I only- 
desire that they shall not make us forget that besides 
the nation's body there is also the nation's soul." 

Americanization is a favorite term these days, but 
the trouble is the shallowness of its content to the 
popular mind. Naturalization papers do not make 
an American. The immigrant needs more than lan- 
guage-study and parrot-like knowledge of the Con- 
stitution. Free birth does not make an American. 
The homeborn need more than the soft inheritance of 
the rights of citizenship. To salute the flag, to buy 
Liberty bonds, to lustily sing ''America" in the hour 
of the nation's distress — this is not conclusive evi- 
dence of patriotism. The deeper ''hyphenism" is a 
thing of the soul, which not only expresses itself 
in divided national allegiance, but which represents 
itself in antagonism to the things for which the flag 
stands, and holds contempt for ''the subtle thing 
that's spirit." 

We are blind to the plainest lesson of history if 
we fail to see, in the rising tide of materialism, the 
nation's gravest peril. If we save our soul, we must 
fight, we must make war on the enemies within. The 
, chief seat of danger, no doubt, is found in our schools 
and colleges where eighteenth century pedagogues 
plant the seeds of atheism, teach the jungle theory 
of life, and subordinate character to success. If, as 
Robert Louis Stevenson said, "mankind was never 
so happily inspired as when it built a cathedral," 
how degraded humanity must be when it damages 
a cathedral. 

To value every man, to walk humbly before God, to 
live the life of service, to elevate the spiritual above the 
material — this is the American ideal. 

15 



226 SPECIAL SERMONS 

It was the custom of a good man to daily enter 
the family gallery and stand reverently before the 
portraits of his forefathers. When his son attained 
the age of twelve, the lad was permitted to accom- 
pany his father into this holy place, and was advised 
to make the custom his own. ** These are onr noble 
ancestors,'* said he, **and their eyes watch over us. 
We can hear their voices still whispering to us, *Keep 
fresh the honor of the family name.' " 

Each recurring anniversary of the nation's inde- 
pendence should be the occasion of communion with 
its illustrious founders, and reaffirmation of the 
national principles and rededication of our lives to 
their perpetuity. The eyes of our forefathers watch 
over us. Their voices still whisper to us from the 
grave, ''Keep fresh the honor of America's good 
name. ' ' 

''Faith of our fathers, holy faith, 
We will be true to thee till death.'' 



fjTACEAET TAYLOE SWEENEY was lorn Feh. 10, 1849, 
JLJ at Liberty, Ky., and received his education at Scott sville 
Seminary in Illinois, four years; Eurelca College, Ills., one year, 
and Ashury University, two years. 

For twenty-seven years he was minvHer of the Columbus (Ind.) 
Church of Christ, and has been pastor emeritus twenty-three years, 

Mr, Sweeney has held all the positions within the gift of his 
people up to the presidency of the National Convention, Was 
TJ. S, Consul-General at Constantinople for three years (1889- 
1891), appointed by President Harrison, His position carried with 
it that of judge of the TJ, S. District Court, 

Was commissioner for the Ottoman Empire at the Columbian 
Exposition, Chicago; member of the Victoria Institute, London, 
and American Institute of Christian Philosophy, New YorTc, 

For a long time lyceum lecturer in the Bidpath Bureau, and 
contributor to popular magazines. 



227 



Labor Day Address 

OUTLINE 

Introductian— It is a great tiling to be a man. 

1. Man is more valuable than anytbing he has ever acquired. 

2. Man is more valuable than anything he has ever organized. 

3. Man is more valuable than anything he has ever achieved. 

4. Institutions are valuable in such ratio as they minister 
to man. 

Civil Grovemment — The school, the church, society, business, 
labor, capital. 

Patriotism — 'All are to be measured by the standard of ser- 
vice. 



228 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 

Labor Day Address by Z. T. Sweeney 

Scripture Text.— Matt. 20 : 20-28. 

THE golden age of the human race will be that 
period of its existence when it renders the high- 
est possible service to this world, and is best served 
by the material and spiritual forces which surround 
it. All philosophers and teachers unite in regarding 
man as the great object of all teaching, and the end 
of all endeavor. Even science accords with philosophy 
and religion when, in the person of Humboldt, it says, 
*'A11 the world is but a platform upon which to 
erect manhood." As the century-plant toils patiently 
for ninety-nine long years that on the hundredth it 
may shoot up a spike of glory and burst into a spray 
of beauty and splendor, so the long train of ancient 
earth life dragged its way through the dust of ages 
primeval to find its flower and fruit in man, the 
youngest, but the noblest, of God's creative handiwork. 
It is a great thing to be a man. I would rather 
be a man than to be the Atlantic Ocean. Kepler tells 
us that *'man is the only one of God's creatures who 
can think His thoughts after Him." In the light 
of this reflection it is evident that if we are to have 
some conception of man before proceeding to his 
golden age, we must obtain it in some other way than 
to measure him by any material standard, or weigh 

229 



230 SPECIAL SERMONS 

him in any material balance. You can only measure 
a man by himself. I institute a few comparisons for 
this purpose. 

First, man is more valuable than anything he has 
ever acquired, and he is an acquisitive animal. He has 
been piling up all the time. It is characteristic of 
a rude and barbarous people that they measure a 
man more by what he has around him than what he 
has within him. A savage woman so fortunate as to 
have a half-dozen wristlets or anklets of brass or bone, 
puts on airs over her unfortunate sister that has 
none. Her civilized sister that is so highly favored 
as to have a sealskin and diamonds, puts on the same 
sort of airs over her less-favored sisters. Now, I am 
not criticizing sealskins and diamonds; they are all 
right in their place. I am only criticizing the airs 
of superiority affected by some weak-minded people 
who happen to creep into those things. Such people 
fail to realize that you can hang all that flummery 
upon a post, as easily as upon a woman, and add 
nothing whatever to the value of the post. 

Edison tells us that he can make diamonds for five 
dollars a pound, but is too busy to engage in it. 
Some years ago I had a neighbor to die who, a half- 
minute before his death, was worth a million dollars. 
A half -minute after his death he was not worth ten 
cents a dozen tied up in bundles. He left this world 
a millionaire; he began eternity a tramp and a pau- 
per. He could not take one of his ill-gotten dollars 
along with him; I presum.e if he could they would 
have all melted or burned up before they got very 
far along in the journey. 

You can not set the stamp of your physical man- 
hood; you have nothing to say as to the color of 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 231 

your hair, your eyes or your complexion ; but you have 
all to say as to whether you will be good or bad, true 
or false, and that is the matter for you to consider. 

Second, man is more valuable than anything he 
has ever organized. Law, order, government, society 
and business have all sprung from the giant intellect 
and cunning fingers of this world's organizer, man. 
In the sunny defiles of Greece, this world of ours 
learned the lesson of human liberty; Rome, the great 
civilizer of the world, gave us the idea of fraternity; 
it was left to our own young Government to demon- 
strate for all the coming ages the everlasting equality 
of all men before the law. Not the equality of all 
men, for all men are not equal. I do not think the 
Creator designed all men to be equal. If he had, 
he would have distributed brains and environment in 
a far different ratio from what he has. But I do 
believe, and our Government has demonstrated, that 
every man should have the right to make himself the 
equal of every other man if he can. 

I ask no favors on God's green earth over any 
man because of his race, religion or color. If a 
Chinaman, or Hebrew, or a Booker Washington can 
get ahead of me in the race of life, he is welcome to 
it, and the man who wants a handicap put upon any 
of his fellows is a coward and a weakling in life's 
great battle. 

Third, man is more valuable than anything he has 
ever achieved. And here my brain begins to reel 
and my mind to stagger when I try to. apprehend 
the achievements of the world's great magician, man. 
I am tired of the silly twaddle of some men and 
books, who talk and write about a man being a slave 
to blind forces. God never intended man to be a 



232 SPECIAL SERMONS 

slave to anything, or anybody for that matter. The 
first thing the Almighty ever said to a man was, 
''Have thou dominion," and that is not language to 
a slave. Did you ever try to comprehend what 
there is in that great commandment, ''Have dominion 
over this earth''? 

There is in it, first, this thought, "Pry into the 
secrets of nature and expound them." As a result, 
we have science. Second, "Lay hold of the forces of 
nature and employ them;" as a result, we have art. 
Third, "Take possession of the riches of nature and 
enjoy them;" as a result, we have culture. Now sci- 
ence, art and culture make up the unit of civiliza- 
tion, and the difference between man in his most 
deeply degraded and most highly civilized conditions 
lies exactly in the ratio in which he carries out this 
great primary command of his Creator. The charter 
of civilization is found in that command. 

The savage will wander under the great dome of 
nature's mystery and majesty and never challenge 
it with a question; the civilized man is an eternal 
interrogation point. If the savage wants to cross a 
continent, he will take his hands and feet, and walk 
and swim and cross that continent in a twelvemonth; 
his civilized brother will ravage the mine of its ore, 
denude the forest of its oak, cage the water and the 
fire, make nature push and pull, and cross that same 
continent in four days. The savage woman will cover 
herself with a straw mat and live on roots and raw 
fish in the midst of nature's prodigality; her civilized 
sister will dress from every quarter of the globe, and 
"the world is compassed that a washerwoman may 
have her tea." I was very much impressed with a 
young lady, that I met some time ago, going down 



THE MAJESTY OP SERVICE 233 

into my old native State of Kentucky. I was not so 
much impressed with her beauty and culture (for she 
was beautiful and doubtless cultured) as I was with her 
toggery, her ''get-up.'' She had on a silk dress; I 
imagined some worm over in China or Turkey dying 
for that. She had on a sealskin coat; I thought some 
seal up in the Pribolof Islands died for that. She 
had plumes on her bonnet; I imagined some ostrich 
hiding his head down in the sands of central Africa 
for that. She had on diamonds, and I thought of 
South Africa or Brazil furnishing them. She had a 
bird on her bonnet. I am glad that birds on bonnets 
are becoming rare to-day. I am glad the Legislatures 
of our progressive States have made it a crime for a 
woman to wear a bird on her bonnet. I hope that the 
Legislatures of the world will fall into line and protect 
our feathered songsters from such ruthless ravage. 

This was not exactly a bird, either, but one of those 
things milliners make up to look like a bird. It was 
a lot of wings, claws, beaks and tails sewed together, 
and looked very much as though a bird might have 
lighted on her bonnet and exploded, and she had 
gathered the fragments and patched them together. 
This young lady was almost a walking menagerie, 
for she dressed from the birds of the air, the beasts 
of the field and the seals of the sea; and yet this is 
civilization as compared to her sister that lives on roots 
and raw fish, and covers herself with the straw mat. 

I have piled up a few illustrations and compari- 
sons in the threshold of this discourse, to impress upon 
your minds this one vital, living and throbbing 
thought, that man was not made for slavery, but 
sovereignty; man was made to have imperial dominion 
over every force, organization and institution on the 



234 SPECIAL SEEMONS 

face of this earth. He will come into his golden age 
only when every force, organization and institution 
upon earth renders him the highest possible service, 
and he returns to this world the highest service of 
which he is capable. This is the fundamental thought 
of my discourse. Out of it spring a few reflections 
which I desire to present for your consideration. 

I address myself primarily to the young people. 
I love to talk to young people, to those who yet face 
the sunrise with the shadows and sorrows of death be- 
hind them. Let me say to you, young ladies and gen- 
tlemen, as you stand before the parting ways in life, 
seeking a work and a ministry in this world, enter no 
profession, work at no trade, follow no calling which 
does not in some way or other minister to and serve 
the purposes of the great monarch, whom we call man. 
You will throw your life away if you break its ala- 
baster box upon less than the head of God's man. 

Man can make life a hard, cold game of grab; he 
can live to pile up dollars, acres, mortgages and bonds, 
and become a millionaire pretty easily, but at the end 
of that life if there has been no moral nor spiritual 
significance to it, it is not one whit superior to the 
life spent in piling up stone or lumber. If you will 
pardon a historic illustration of the value of life in its 
golden age, I will give you one with the latter part 
of which, at least, I was familiar. About eighty years 
ago a young man from Hagerstown, Md., made his 
way over the Allegheny Mountains and settled in the 
wild slashes of southeastern Indiana. He spent fifty 
years of his life teaching school for about thirty dol- 
lars a month and boarding around among the scholars, 
after the fashion of the day. He called the young 
boys around him, ragged, dirty, unkempt little fellows; 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 235 

little Tom and Ad, 01 and Lew. That man poured out 
his life upon them. He instilled into them high ideals 
and lofty purposes. He taught them to be upright, 
honorable, manly and true. That old man died a few 
years ago in the city of Indianapolis, with a mortgage 
on his little home; he never accumulated three thou- 
sand dollars in all his busy life. He died unhonored 
and unsung by the great masses of the land, and there 
are not a dozen people who read this article that re- 
member his name, or will recall it when I pronounce 
it, for I shall pronounce it with the reverence of a 
pupil for his master, the honored name of Samuel K. 
Hoshour. 

But that old man lived long enough to see little 
''OV come out of his obscurity and rags, and stand 
in the Senate chamber of the United States as Oliver 
P. Morton, and make this great nation tremble with 
his words for human liberty; he also saw little ''Tom'' 
climb the dizzy ladder of fame, round by round, and 
sit down in the second highest chair in this nation, 
and the statue that adorns the forefront of Indiana's 
capitol to-day is in memory of little ''Tom," Thomas 
A. Hendricks, Vice-President of the United States. 
If you want to follow the fortunes of little Lew, go 
to the bookstore and buy that immortal book, "Ben 
Hur," and Lew Wallace will join Addison C. Harris, 
the great minister and author, Oliver P. Morton, 
Thomas A. Hendricks and more than a hundred other 
distinguished Hoosiers in declaring that the founda- 
tions of their early manhood were laid by the little, 
old Hoosier schoolmaster, who taught his life out for 
thirty dollars a month and his board. 

Young ladies and gentlemen, I would rather be a 
Samuel K. Hoshour, or one of the humblest school- 



236 SPECIAL SERMONS 

teachers in the State of Indiana, teaching young 
Hoosiers to grow up into honorable manhood and 
womanhood than to be a whole syndicate of pro- 
moters, coal and food manipulators and mortgage 
brokers. There is more glory in one life devoted to 
the human race than in a thousand devoted to mere 
personal ambition and the attainment of great wealth. 
What is true of the individual life is equally true of 
the organic life. When the Master said that 'Hhe 
Sabbath was made for man," He uttered a universal 
truth. Laws are for man, government, society, business, 
home; the church of God itself is for man, and each 
of these great institutions is valuable and only valu- 
able in the ratio that it ministers to man here or 
hereafter. In the light of this thought, let us try 
some of the great institutions of civilization. 

I call your attention in the first place to that insti- 
tution known as civil government. Civil government 
exists that it may minister to, and serve the purpose 
of, the individual, and its value is determined by the 
ratio in which it carries out that object. As Amer- 
icans we are very proud of our Government, and justly 
so, but sometimes, I think, a little boastfully so. 
Often do we hear our orators and campaigners utter 
the statement that **we are the greatest nation on 
the face of this earth"; we listen to it and pat our- 
selves upon the breast and our neighbor upon the back, 
and thank God that we are not citizens of the ''effete 
monarchies." Well, this statement is true; true in a 
far higher sense than many of these orators ever 
dream when uttering it, but it is not true as they utter 
it. The man who thinks the United States Govern- 
ment is the greatest and most powerful when measured 
by the foreign standards by which civil government 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 237 

is gauged, is an ignoramus with regard to civil 
government. 

No man, who has not witnessed the clocklike pre- 
cision with which the strong governments of Europe 
regulate their internal affairs in times of peace, com- 
mand united co-operation in times of war and reha- 
bilitate themselves in days of reconstruction, is in 
position to make invidious comparisons. It would do 
us conceited Yankees a little good to get out and travel 
around the world, that we may have some appreciation 
of those civil governments that are backed by the power 
and dignity of long centuries of experience. The first 
standard by which governmental greatness has been 
measured in Europe is military strength, the second 
is that of naval power, and the third is religious ex- 
pression. In both military and naval strength, the old 
countries have always excelled us, and even now, in 
spite of peace leagues and disarmament conferences, 
the European armies and navies are slowly, grimly 
and surely planning to come back. In religious ex- 
pression the old countries have always surpassed us. 
Where are our magnificent cathedrals with spires 
pointing to the skies as in Europe? Where are 
our immense picture galleries, and galleries of sculp- 
ture teeming with the works of the old masters? And 
where are our ancient museums — ^hives of art — into 
which have been gathered the honey of the genius of 
centuries ? 

'^But," says one, *'we have our great domain and 
our broad acres of territory." Yes, my friend, and 
there are governments over there that control vast 
stretches of earth by the side of which we are but a 
patch. We may as well admit these things if we wish 
to be fair to the facts of history. And yet, in 



238 SPECIAL SERMONS 

spite of all that I have said, I do not hesitate to 
proclaim the fact that our type of patriotism, our 
intelligence and the thrift of our people form a wall 
of strength about us that is greater than that which 
the mere armies and navies of other nations can produce. 

When Agesilaus was asked why Sparta had no 
walls, he replied : ' ' She needs none ; the concord of her 
citizens is her strength.'' It is related of Benjamin 
Franklin that when he was United States Minister 
at the Court of Versailles, he attended a great diplo- 
matic banquet, at which the English Minister arose, 
and, lifting his cup, said, *' Here's to England, the 
sun that shines for all the world;" the French Minis- 
ter, coming in a good second, said, ^'Here's to France, 
the moon that shines wherever and whenever the sun 
does not;" when it came the turn of our Minister, 
Franklin arose and said with dignity, ** Here's to the 
United States, the young Joshua who commands the 
sun and the moon to stand still, and they obey him;" 
and they do. 

A few years ago when Grover Cleveland said to 
John Bull, *'Go a little slowly down on the borders 
of Venezuela," John Bull called a halt; a few years 
later, when Theodore Roosevelt said to Germany, 
France and Italy combined, ^'You would better arbi- 
trate with that little South American sister of ours," 
they arbitrated; when George Dewey said to Admiral 
Deitrick, commander of the Imperial German squadron 
in Manila Bay, *^If you don't quit running this 
blockade and violating the laws of honorable warfare, I 
will sink every ship you have in this harbor; move off 
shore," down moved the Imperial squadron at the com- 
mand of the little Yankee. "Whenever America lifts 
her voice in command, the world '* walks Spanish." 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 239 

Now, why are we the greatest nation on the face 
of the earth? It is not because of our army, our 
navy, our territory, or our institutions of learning or 
devotion. I will tell you why, and tell it in the echo 
of the one thought of this address. The United States 
is the greatest and most powerful nation of this earth 
because everything in it is made to minister to and 
serve the purpose of the individual citizen. The Czar 
of Russia cared little how much vodka his subjects 
drank so he had an army and navy. The Sultan of 
Turkey recked little if his subjects lived on black 
bread and goat's milk cheese all their lives, if he had 
a full exchequer. In the United States we would not 
give the snap of our finger for a government that 
does not educate, elevate and expand the individual 
citizen. In many of the Old World countries it is ^^the 
people of the government, by the government and for 
the government/' with us it is, as Theodore Parker, 
of Boston, first uttered, Daniel Webster reiterated and 
Abraham Lincoln incarnated, ^^We are a government of 
the whole people, by the whole people and for the whole 
people.'' Our government is fitted, framed and or- 
ganized to minister to the people in the highest de- 
gree. The makers of our government realized that 
man is essentially and by nature a thinker, a talker 
and an actor, and they framed this government to 
develop man along these three sides of his nature, and 
stimulate the highest possible freedom. They laid wide 
and deep the foundations of the little red schoolhouse, 
which became the greatest house on the American con- 
tinent or any other. The playground of an American 
school is the greatest democratic platform in the 
world. Here little Patrick, whose father dug peat out 
of the bogs of Ireland; little Sandy, whose father 



240 SPECIAL SERMONS 

herded sheep upon the hills of Scotland; little Hans, 
whose father wore wooden shoes in Germany, and little 
Cuffy, whose father picked cotton bales in the fields 
of South Carolina, meet upon a common level. Here 
are taught the two most important lessons the human 
being can learn: first, to take care of his own rights, 
and, second, to respect the rights of others, and the boy 
who does not know these lessons will have them 
trounced into him on the playground of the American 
school. 

It is with no little sadness that we watch the board- 
ing up of the little, old-fashioned country schoolhouse, 
that is being displaced by the modem, centralized in- 
stitution; but no one can ever board up the demo- 
cratic spirit that has been fostered there and that will 
continue to be fostered in its more pretentious 
successors. 

But man is also a talker, and, that he should have 
the right to express his thoughts, this Government 
is organized to insure the highest expression of them, 
and, as a symbol, we have the great printing-press, 
without censorship, without dictatorship, except the 
censorship and dictatorship of an enlightened public 
opinion. 

As an expression of the right to act, we have a 
little old box, abused, kicked about and neglected, but 
representing the highest political freedom in the world 
— the ballot-box of an American election. In spite of 
all the abuses that have clustered around it, it is a 
great thing for an American freeman to cast an Amer- 
ican ballot. These little ballots on election day fall 
over our land like snowflakes forming an avalanche of 
public opinion, that will sweep away faults, right 
wrongs and correct abuses. 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 241 

It is these things, rather than armies, navies and 
picture galleries, that constitute our greatness, because 
they minister to and serve the wants of the individual 
man. As long as we are true to these great symbols 
of our power, this Government will stand because it 
ought to stand; but when we neglect these institu- 
tions, prostitute them, this Government will die, and 
it ought to die and be succeeded by a Government 
that will be true to these emblems of service. 

Are there no danger signals before the American 
people? Are there no red lights to warn us of ap- 
proaching evil? Here truth, honesty and patriotism 
compel us to say ''Yes"; there are forces coiling them- 
selves around these emblems of our greatness which, 
if left undisturbed, will work our ruin. 

Are you aware of the fact that a sentiment is 
rapidly crystallizing in this country that, if it suc- 
ceeds, will be the death-blow to all that the little red 
schoolhouse ever stood for? If you don't know it, you 
should know it. But I wish to speak guardedly here, 
lest I be misunderstood. I am not laying this charge at 
the feet of any great political party among us, neither 
am I charging it against any great religious denom- 
ination. I do not believe we have any religious de- 
nomination, as such, that has any such treasonable 
purpose in view. I desire to be fair with every man, 
though he may differ with me in politics or in religion. 
But there are vile men in all our parties, political or 
religious, secular or sacred, who, to accomplish their 
vile purposes, would put out the torch of enlightenment 
in our public schools. 

I only lay that charge at the door of those who 
openly boast of their intention to destroy our schools. 
Not long since a great leader of thought discussing, in 

16 



242 SPECIAL SERMONS 

one of the largest journals in the land, the destruction 
of our school system, said, ''This is what we are com- 
ing to, no matter what the Constitution of the United 
States says about it/' Benedict Arnold nor Jefferson 
Davis ever uttered more treasonable language against 
his country than that leader of public opinion, and 
he would not hesitate to fight against that liberty for 
which stands the American schoolhouse with the 
American flag waving over it. On this question all 
political parties should stand together, and pledge 
themselves to deliver the land thoroughly from men 
who stand over the schools to cast them out, thus 
showing sentiments at war with our Government and 
with civilization. I can only say that if there lives 
a man on the American continent whose sentiments 
are at war with the American flag waving over the 
American school, he had better readjust his sentiments 
so they will come into line with these institutions or 
take his sentiments back to the land from which he 
brought them; for the man or set of men who will 
lay leprous hands upon the American school will go 
down in the conflict they incite. 

Let every American patriot, Republican or Demo- 
crat, Protestant or Catholic, line up and touch elbows 
in the determination to save the American public 
school, the hope of eighteen millions of our boys and 
girls, and the protecting angel of American freedom 
and patriotism. 

Are you aware of the fact that there is a senti- 
ment arising in this country that will ultimately de- 
stroy the second emblem of our power, the printing- 
press? As I said in the beginning, I believe that we 
have the best press on the face of this earth; I believe 
that most of the editors who sit in the sanctum are 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 243 

as patriotic as the men upon onr platforms, or in our 
pulpits for that matter; but it is a notable fact that 
we have men in the editorial chair who do not hesi- 
tate to prostitute the high function of journalism on 
the altar of party spirit; men who do not hesitate 
to dip their pens into wormwod and gall, and write 
slime and slander over the name of many a good man 
for no other reason than that he is a candidate on the 
other side of the political fence, and they will ruin 
him if they can. Such men ought to be dressed up 
a la zebra and sent to their State penal institution for 
a term, to learn that the reputation of their political 
opponents is sacred from libel. 

Are you aware that a sentiment is rapidly organ- 
izing in this country having for its object the death- 
blow to the third emblem of our power, the ballot- 
box? While you are reading this discourse, there are 
men all over this land who are plotting treason 
against the American ballot and the American voter; 
men who call themselves ''practical politicians," who 
think that the revenues of a great city, State or 
country are the legitimate plunder of men who are 
smart enough to organize and loot them. There is hard- 
ly a State in the Union that has not been disgraced 
with a political gang having for its object graft upon 
the revenues of the State or municipality. Such men 
do not like to see the average citizen in politics; the 
fewer men in politics, the better for them. 

The average American citizen is so intent upon 
looking after his own business, profession or calling 
that he turns over the political machinery of the coun- 
try to ^Hhe gang," ''the bosses" and "the boys." I 
am a minister of the gospel and one that has politics. 
I do not ventilate my politics in print, but any man 



244 SPECIAL SERMONS 

can get my politics for the asking. I have not the 
least respect in the world for a preacher who gets so 
goody-goody that he hasn't any politics; such men 
are fit to be put in alcohol (or rather, I would say, 
some soft drink), and laid away in a museum. I do 
not believe that a preacher ever set a better example 
to his flock than by attending the primaries and help- 
ing to select delegates and to formulate platforms. 
President Harrison said, on one occasion, that '^God 
Almighty never endowed any man or set of men with 
wisdom enough to frame laws that everybody could 
go off and leave/' and this is what we have been do- 
ing for generations. 

The patriotism of peace is no less valuable than 
the patriotism of war. There is as much patriotism 
in balloting and selecting good men and measures to 
rule in our land as there is in springing to the rescue 
of our flag in time of invasion or insurrection. The 
golden age of our Government will never come until 
the average American citizen realizes the importance 
and value of these great emblems of our power — a 
glorious heritage bequeathed to us by the men who 
reaped them on fields of suffering and bloodshed — and 
shall rise in his might to rescue these emblems from 
the greed of the spoiler and the trickster, and purify 
them for power and for service to the oncoming 
citizens of our Eepublic. 

Again, I direct your attention to that institution 
known as business. Business is a great organization 
having for its object the service of all who engage in 
it, and its value as an organization may be gauged 
by the ratio in which it performs that service. Do 
the men in the business world realize that we are on 
the heels of a great business revolution? Forces that 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 245 

should be pulling together like Siamese twins are 
pulling apart, turning their guns upon each other, 
and, unless prudent counsel and wise caution prevail, 
this country may be rent asunder by dissensions in 
the business world. 

At one extreme we have the professional striker 
and labor agitator, paid to embroil capital and labor, 
if possible. He is a dangerous element in the business 
world and I have no excuse for him. At the other 
extreme is a no less dangerous character, the purse- 
proud millionaire aristocrat, who has accumulated 
great wealth through no particular merit of his own, 
but through business conditions which sTiould not 
exist, and has forgotten that he is a brother to the 
rest of the human race. He attempts to use men as 
he would machines, until they begin to *^ rattle a lit- 
tle," and then throws them on the scrap-pile and se- 
cures others. Not long since a great manufacturer in 
this country said, speaking to his fellow-manufac- 
turers: ''The time has come when we must get the 
strongest men we can, work them as hard as we can 
and pay them as little as we can." Such a man is 
as great a menace to the business world as the vilest 
professional labor agitator could possibly be. 

Between these two extremes lies the great body 
of honest employers who are willing to pay an honest 
wage for an honest day's work to an honest laborer 
willing to work an honest day for an honest wage. 
These honest classes are all endangered by the ex- 
tremes of which I have spoken. What is the trouble 
with business? Instead of being a medium by which 
men serve and help one another, it has become a me- 
dium by which men prey upon one another. Victor 
Hugo would have settled this question for us a half- 



246 SPECIAL SERMONS 

century ago if we had heeded his advice. He tells 
US, '^ There are two problems connected with business; 
first, the problem of acquiring wealth; and, second, the 
problem of rightly distributing wealth. '^ We have 
concentrated our energies so much upon the first prob- 
lem that we have neglected the second problem en- 
tirely, but it is up to us for settlement to-day. 

Strikes, lockouts and walkouts will never settle the 
question. They may clarify the atmosphere and define 
the right. I do not wish to be a pessimist upon this 
subject. I believe that the business troubles will be 
settled speedily and rightly; already I see the gleam 
of a coming day. This great country, which has grap- 
pled with and settled so many questions, will settle 
the* question of capital and labor. My heart was 
greatly cheered sometime ago as I read a statement 
in a newspaper from the secretary of the Chicago City 
Street Railway Company, in which he. said: **This 
company is beginning to learn that a large part of its 
capital stock lies in the welfare and contentment and 
prosperity of its employees." "When these great cor- 
porations speak in that manner, it is the harbinger of 
peace. Honor to the great railway companies of the 
United States, many of which are now inaugurating 
pension systems by which the employee who has faith- 
fully served the company for years may retire with 
an income sufiicient to keep the wolf from the door 
the rest of his life. 

I know a great corporation that employs six 
thousand operatives, and the business is built upon the 
principle of human brotherhood from the lowest mud- 
sill to the highest official. They have a great table 
around which thirty or forty men take lunch every 
day; half of these men represent the capital of the 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 247 

company, the other half represent its labor, and no 
question is acted upon until both capital and labor 
have been heard from. For their employees they have 
all kinds of conveniences and accommodations, that 
show a keen interest in their welfare. They have 
boxes all around the factory over which are inscribed 
the words: ^'If our employees see how we may improve 
our methods, let them make suggestions and drop them 
into this box. Each suggestion that is adopted will 
be paid for.'' A young man having charge of their 
shipping department, sending out twenty-six thousand 
packages every month, wrote on a slip of paper: ^'You 
can make a better handle and save twelve inches of 
rope upon each package." The board of governors 
found that he was correct. They discovered that his 
suggestion would save them two thousand dollars in a 
year, and wrote a check to the young man for one 
thousand dollars, almost enough to buy him a little 
'home, and they did not give him a red copper too 
much. 

There are many such factories in the United States 
to-day, and they are doubling and trebling annually. 
Honor to the great Pennsylvania Scotchman, Andrew 
Carnegie! I am glad he went on giving away library 
buildings and church organs until he died a compara- 
tively poor man, as he proclaimed it his intention to 
do. But when I go to western Pennsylvania, and see 
the great fires from the vast furnaces where Mr. Car- 
negie's employees earned their hundreds of millions; 
when I walk through those manufacturing towns and 
see the ill-paved streets, neglected fore yards and rear 
yards, the unsanitary conditions and the old red paint 
on each building where women are dying at thirty 
years of age and men are not living out half their 



248 SPECIAL SERMONS 

natural time because they are burning their lives out 
in front of those hot fires; when I see their children 
who look like half -starved little beggars in the streets — 
I could wish that Mr. Carnegie had given a few mil- 
lions of dollars less for library buildings and church 
organs, and a few millions more to educating, refining 
and making comfortable the people who were turning 
his pig iron into gold for him. 

I was at Vandergriff, Pa., sometime ago in the 
great sheet-steel works, where the company had done 
much for its employees in the way of building casinos, 
organizing libraries and reading-rooms to insure recre- 
ation as well as giving good wages. Shortly after my 
visit, there was a depression in the sheet-steel trade, 
and the company called the foremen together and said : 
''We can not continue running this factory at present 
prices;'' the foremen called the operatives into a 
meeting and acquainted them with the situation; they 
immediately appointed a committee to draft a paper, 
making a voluntary reduction of 20 per cent, of their 
wages, and further said: ''If this is not enough, there 
is a rubber on the end of the pencil accompanying 
this paper; rub out the reduction and make it more 
if necessary.'* That is the reply of honest labor to 
honest capital. 

The settlement of the labor question will come 
when the employer realizes that under God he is the 
true servant of every man in his employ, that it is 
his privilege to make money through them and for 
them as well. The golden age of business will come 
when it becomes the great medium by which men 
through love serve one another. 

In conclusion, fearing that I have missed some one, 
I wish to say that in the golden age of eternity, to 



THE MAJESTY OF SERVICE 249 

which home, church, society and State are bearing ns, 
we will not be graded according to our wealth, our 
literary prestige, or our political pull; there it will 
be what we have done as the servants of God and his 
man that decides our eternal destiny. Eighteousness 
will not be crowded into us by any sort of dynamics; 
glory shall not be draped upon us from without like a 
garment; they must spring up from within and grow 
through a life of service. Beautifully has the poetess 
taught this in her ode to the water-lily. Walking the 
river brink, and seeing a little lily burst from the 
waters and throw up its white petals to the sunshine, 
she lifted her thoughts in poetic fervor and said: 

'*0 star on the breast of the river, 

marvel of bloom and of grace, 
Did you fall right down from heaven, 

Out of the sweetest place? 

''You are as pure as the thoughts of an angel, 
Your heart is steeped in the sun. 
Did 70U grow in the Radiant City, 
My pure and holy onef 

''Nay, nay," said the' lily; *^I fell not from heaven. 
None gave me my saintly white; 
I slowly grew in the darkness, 
Down in the dreary night. 

"From the ooze and slime of the river 

1 won my glory and grace. 
White souls fall not^ O my poet; 

They rise to the highest place/' 



JTTAIjLACE THAEP was horn in Middletovm, Ky., Sept, 22, 
yy 1858, He graduated from Forest Home Academy, An- 
chorage, Ky., and did postgraduate work in Transylvania College 
and the College of the Bible, Lexington, Ky, His first pastorate 
was with the Church of Christ, Glasgow, Ky,, for four years, 
followed by five years with the church at Versailles, Ky,; two 
years at Carlisle, Ky.; five years at Augusta, Ga.; five years at 
Crawfordsville, Ind., and nineteen years at North Side, Pittsburgh, 
Fa., where his ministry still continues, 

Mr. Tharp has traveled in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, 
making special studies of Egypt and Palestine, In 1909 he con- 
ducted the largest comrminion service ever held. It was at the 
Centennial Convention of the Disciples of Christ held in Pitts- 
burgh, 

He has delivered mnny special addresses and lectures, and held 
a large number of evangelistic meetings. 



251 



Church Dedication Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introductory Note — Texts. 

I. Human Needs and the Measure of God's Supply. 

1. Man has a gripping sense of poverty. Met by 

adoption into Crod's family. 

2. Man has a hitter sense of bereavement. Met by 

the comforting assurance of immortality. 

3. Man has a humiliating sense of his ignorance and 

limitations. Met by the promise that we shall 
know as we are known. 

4. Man has a sad and suffOTing sense of sin. Met by 

opportunity for salvation. 

5. Man has a depressing sense of smallness and un- 

productiveness of his service. Met by assurance 
that our good deeds are greater than they appeax. 

II. The Meaning of This House Is What It Shall Declare. 

1. God should be worshiped by every responsible being 

in this community. 

2. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. 

3. This is simply and only a church of Christ. 

4. Where the Scriptures speak, this church will speak. 

5. The whole world shall know the truth. 

Dedicatory Responsive Service. 



252 



SUPERABUNDANT BENEFACTIONS 
AND SIGNIFICANT MONUMENTS 

Church Dedication Sermon by Wallace Tharp 

Bring ye tlie whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may 
be food in my house^ and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah 
of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour 
you out a blessing, that there Shall not be room enough to receive 
it.— Mai. 3 : 10. 

What mean ye by these stones? — Josh. 4: 6. 

NOTE : Upon the occasion of the dedication of a 
church building, two objectives are usually in 
the program. The first of these is the ^'setting 
apart,'' in a holy or consecrated sense, of a building 
that is to be devoted to the worship of almighty God 
after the manner discovered in the New Testament. 

The second one is the raising of money to satisfy 
all debts that may have accrued in the construction of 
the building. 

The following sermon is designed to prepare the 
minds and hearts of the people to satisfy both these 
objectives; consequently, two texts, wholly unrelated 
to each other, have been chosen, and practically two 
themes are treated in the address. 

The first part of the sermon that follows, that on 
''Superabundant Benefactions,'' should prepare us for 
generous giving; and the second part, that on ''Sig- 
nificant Monuments," should supply the reasons for 
the existence of the building that is being dedicated. 

253 



254 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Fellow Citizens of the Kingdom of God, Men and 
Brethren : 

You have eminent examples and compelling reasons 
for making this a great and solemn and beautiful 
occasion. You are engaged in a tremendous and sig- 
nificant business. "What you are doing to-day is for an 
*'age on ages telling"; it is joining hands with God in 
bringing about His will on earth as it is done in 
heaven. Your minds and hearts should be very reverent 
and ready now to receive any word that God would 
speak to you. And He has spoken! The wonderful 
echoes of that voice will reach you in this hour; and 
what He says you should receive obediently, lovingly, 
and without questioning. Hear Him, as through the 
lips of Malachi, His prophet, He speaks to you to-day: 
''Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that 
there may be food in my house, and prove me now 
herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you 
the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, 
that there shall not be room enough to receive it.'' 

Our gracious Benefactor never equates His giving 
with our capacity for receiving. Abundant is God's 
own word. How He loves to use it! ''I will abun- 
dantly pardon;" ''abundantly able to save;" "I will 
administer unto you an abundant entrance" into His 
everlasting kingdom; and again, in this text, He dis- 
covers His overgenerous hand: "Bring ye the whole 
tithe into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith, 
said Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the win- 
dows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there 
shall not be room enough to receive it." 

The proof of the truth of the challenge found in 
this text may be witnessed on every hand. All the 



SIGNIFICANT MONUMENTS 255 

eyes of earth and heaven can not take in all the light 
that God has given; all the lungs of all the breath- 
ing creatures of God can not take in all the ozone and 
atmosphere with which God floods this universe; all 
the mouths of all the living creatures of this earth 
can not drink all the sparkling water that He pours forth 
from the fertile paps of earth's fountains. Despite the 
fact that man's heart, in its desires and longings, is 
one great void whose cavernous echo is ever *^More,'' 
''More,'' whose sense of want is enormous and never 
satisfied, still our generous Father issues the chal- 
lenge, ''Prove me now, and see if I will not open you 
the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, 
that there will not be room enough to receive it." 

Let us note some of the common feelings of Jiu- 
man needs and the measure of God^s supply. 

First, we observe that man has a keen and grip- 
ping sense of Poverty. 

The vast majority of the people of this world are 
poor, very poor; and they feel it keenly too. Jesus 
Himself said, "The poor ye have always with you." 
Now, what "windows of heaven" has God opened for 
the poor of this earth? Opened, and out of it poured 
a blessing so great that poverty is transformed into 
treasure and into wealth, so abundant that hearts 
can not contain it? Please understand, brethren, that 
God does not propose to meet this sense of want by 
pouring gold dollars or coin current of any kind into 
your hand. He has opened a finer and broader and 
more beautiful window than that. Through His grace, 
on the terms and conditions of the gospel of His dear 
Son, He has provided for each of us that we may be 
adopted into the family of the King of kings, and 
thus become an heir of God and a joint-heir with 



256 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Jesus Christ; an heir hereditary to all the hold- 
ings, the boundless and beautiful holdings, of the 
King. 

''My Father is rich in houses and lands; 
He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands; 
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold, 
His coffers are full — He has riches untold." 

As a son or daughter of God you are an inheritor 
of all this. Ah! what heart can contain it? What 
mind grasp it? How much better it is than to give 
us titles to houses and lands and earthly goods! With 
these come sorrows, cares and litigations and, often, 
dissensions; with the other come joys unspeakable and 
full of glory. '^I stood upon the banks of the river 
Po, and looked upon an Italian sky. I'd rather leave 
my boy ten thousand acres of sky and not one inch 
of land, than to leave him ten thousand acres of land 
and none of sky." 

Again, man has a keen and bitter sense of 
Bereaveynent, 

Where is the heart that has not felt its sting? 
Death does sad things with us and ours, my friends. 

''Death rides in every passing breeze. 

And lurks in every flower; 
Each season has its own disease, 

Its peril every hour. 
Leaves have their time to fall, 

And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
And stars to set^ — ^but all — 

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death i ' ' 

When the season of sadness settles upon you because 
of the death of one you loved; when the emptiness of 
the home haunts you like a hideous dream when you 
have returned home from the burying-place ; when the 



SIGNIFICANT MONUMENTS 257 

pain of the last good-by grip^ your heart until it 
aches and you cry aloud — ^under what '* window of 
heaven'' can you go and be flooded with a blessing 
that will soothe your sorrow and give you surcease 
from pain? There is such a window, and God opened 
it. When Whittier lost by death his favorite sister, he 
thought his heart would break. But sitting one day 
where he could see a portrait of his sister, he took up 
a pencil and wrote: 

'^And yet, dear heart, remeinbering thee, 
-Am I not richer than of old; 
Safe in thine immortality, 

What change can reach the wealth I hold?'' 

Over against death, God has written the word '* im- 
mortality. ' ' And through this beautiful window flood 
the light and glory of all the hopes that fill and 
sweeten the human heart. Gazing through this win- 
dow, with the eye of faith we can see the home of 
God, and in that home we see again the ones we lived 
with and lost, ransomed and redeemed, made happy 
in love and light and confronted with nothing that 
makes sighing, crying or dying — and all this for- 
evermore. 

Again, man has a keen and humiliating sense of his 
Ignorance and Limitations. 

This is particularly true of those who are wisest 
and know the most. We have accomplished much, very 
much, in the continent of knowledge. We have cata- 
logued and scientifically arranged much that is to be 
known about our world, our race, and its experiences; 
the water, air and sky. But our volume of knowledge, 
compared with the vast libraries of things to be known, 
leaves us with a bitter sense of ignorance and of the 
limitations that are necessarily ours. 

17 



258 SPECIAL SERMONS 

What ^'window of heaven" has God opened to meet 
man's longing here? I do not mean to have you hope 
that God will, in some mysterious way, lead yon along 
the path of definitions or of answers to all the specula- 
tions and anxious questions that have tested and tan- 
talized you in your struggle for knowledge. He has 
done something finer and more glorious still. To me, 
there is no sweeter promise in all the gospel of our Lord 
than this: ''We shall know even as we are known." 
With what wild welcome, too, I read that we shall 
''learn lessons that pass knowledge" and learn them 
from Him of whom Paul spoke when he said: "0 the 
depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge 
of God." How my heart has longed for answers to 
some questions that have confronted me as I have 
lived and moved among men; and how it thrills me 
when the hope fills my heart that 

''The answers are somewliere. 
Safe and fair, 

Beyond the stars and the starlit air, 
For men and women and Eobin Adair. ' ' 

What heart of man can contain the fullness of the 
blessing that pours through the window God has 
opened here! 

Furthermore, man has a sad and suffering sense 
of Sin. 

Not only of his personal sin, but of the sins of a 
whole world. Even a casual glance at the men and 
women of to-day will discover a piteous spectacle of 
sin. And just at this time the world seems to have 
gone on a mad, wild, riotous debauch. At no time 
could the question be asked with a more sure and posi- 
tive answer — "Does sin abound?" And when we re- 
member that 



SIGNIFICANT MONUMENTS 259 

' ' Sorrow follows wrong, 
As echo follows soDg, 
On, on, on, on/' 

we are led up to the reason for man's sad and suf- 
fering sense of sin. Nothing in all this world is so 
hateful to God as sin; and nothing has so cursed this 
earth and saddened man. It brought death into this 
world ^'with all our woe and loss of Eden." It sowed 
the prolific seeds of sorrow and suffering in the hearts 
of men. It placed thorns amid our flowers, and weeds 
and briars and thistles in our earth. It bars the 
doors of heaven and happiness against those who are 
exercised therein, and it set on fire the fuel of hell. 
And when it had made wreck and ruin of men and 
of man's earth, it reached its potential hand up to 
the right hand of God and made it necessary to send 
down to this sin-cursed earth His eternal companion, 
and incarnate Him in the weak and suffering flesh 
of man and subject Him to all of man's temptations. 
Indeed, the sweep, grip and consequences of sin 
are immeasurable, indescribable, unpicturable and ap- 
palling, and its power, deceitfulness and damning 
cunning are riotously active to-day. 

What ^^ window of heaven" has God thrown open 
that can measure to and overcome so fearful and 
terrible a condition as this? Let Him answer: ''Does 
sin abound? grace doth much more abound." Over 
against man's measureless sin God places His im- 
measurable love and His willingness to forgive. 
''Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
white as snow." "I will remember them against you 
no more for ever." A fountain has been opened in 
Israel for the cleansing of the nations. 



260 SPECIAL SERMONS 

"There is a fountain filled with blood 
Drawn from Inunanners veins ^ 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
Lose all their guilty stains. '^ 

When I think of the great Jehovah forming the worlds, 
setting on fire the suns, writing the silent and po- 
tential and unerring laws which the material universe 
obeys, marking out the pathways of the planets and 
writing the mnsic they sing as they march on their 
way, I am filled with amazement, admiration and 
wonder; but, when I think of Him laying under 
tribute the boundless resources of His love, wisdom 
and power to develop into glorious perfection a plan 
by which His poor, deluded, miserable, fallen and 
sinful children might be forgiven, cleansed, redeemed 
and beatified, I am filled with hope, joy, gratitude 
and love, and have no room to hold all the fullness of 
such blessing. No wonder Paul speaks of Jesus as 
G-od's ^^unspeakable gift.'^ "What tongue could tell, 
what feeble words express, the beauty, glory, joy, hope 
and sweetness of the salvation from the guilt and con- 
sequences of sin, brought to us through Him! 

"'^ Could we with ink the ocean fill, 

And were the skj a parchment made; 
Were every stalk on earth a quill, 

And every man a scribe by trade — 
Ta write the love of God for man 

Would drain that ocean dry; 
Nor would that scroll contain the whole, 

Though stretched from sky to sky. ^' 

Love so unmerited, unsolicited and eternal as God's 
love for us surely obligates us to Him in a measure 
we can never fill. But we should do our best to love 
Him with all there is within us. 



SIGNIFICANT MONUMENTS 261 

"Were tlie whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small; 
Love so amazing, so divine, 

Demands my life, my soul^ my all.'' 

In dedicating this house of worship to-day, with what 
joy and generosity should you give of yourselves, 
your service, and your substance! 

Once again, and finally, on this part of my theme: 
Man has a depressing sense of the smallness and uTt- 
productiveness of Jiis service, even when it is rendered 
with the most sincere and earnest diligence. 

The task God has set for us is so great! Some- 
times we feel like pigmies, with tiny pickaxes, dig- 
ging at Himalayan or Rocky Mountain ranges. The 
recent *^ World Survey" discovered to us the immen- 
sity of the task we have yet to perform, to even begin 
the fulfilling of the will of God on earth as it is done 
in heaven. Sixteen hundred millions of human beings 
on this earth, only one-third of whom have ever heard 
of heaven, much less of the ^^ windows'' God has 
'^opened'' in heaven! And when you know of the 
paganism, idolatry, false religions and unspeakable 
sins that enslave and doom them, to say nothing of 
the miserable half-heartedness, hypocrisy, sectarianism 
and unfaithfulness of those who do profess to know 
and love God, the task bulks so large and dreadful 
that the value of only one man's work seems so small 
and insignificant that the thought settles upon him 
with desperate discouragement. 

What *' window of heaven" has God opened here 
that will fill us with a blessing so great that we shall 
have no room to contain it? 

Permit me to assure you that God has provided for 
this very thing most abundantly. He has so arranged 



262 SPECIAL SERMONS 

it in His wonderful economy that our deeds are often 
infinitely greater than they appear upon the face of 
them. "Witness the ''widow's mite." Apparently so 
small a deed, but in reality that act has inspired more 
gifts for the treasury of our Lord than the gifts of 
Eockefeller, Peabody, Frick and Carnegie combined. 
''A cup of cold water given in my name shall not lose 
its reward." One kind act of a Christian girl changed 
the whole course of the life of Jerry McAuley from a 
drunken sot to a potential witness for Jesus. His 
missions go round the world to-day like a golden girdle. 
''A kindly word, fitly spoken, is like an apple of gold 
in a basket of silver. ' ' No labor is vain or unproductive 
if it be done ''in the Lord." To the puny action of 
our weak arm, God joins His omnipotence, and the act 
that we sometimes judge to be so small and unrespon- 
sive moves mountains. "I can do all things through 
Christ who strengtheneth me, ' ' says Paul. And besides 
all this, we have God's own declaration. "I will over- 
turn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, 
until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him. ' ' 

I confidently anticipate a complete victory over 
this world. A glad and glorious time when God's 
kingdom shall cover this earth as the waters cover the 
beds of the seas. A time when He shall "have the 
heathen for his inheritance" from the "rivers to the 
ends of the earth." When the "Holy City" shall be 
upon this earth and there shall be "a new heaven and 
a new earth," and God's will shall be done on earth 
as it is done in heaven. 

Through the "open windows" of heaven pour, with 
superabundant fullness, all these blessings, and so 
much more that we have not room enough to receive 
them. Long ago would this golden age of glory and vie- 



SIGNIFICANT MONUMENTS 263 

tory have been accomplished, if only we had, in good 
faith, accepted His challenge and put Him to the test. 
Be it spoken to our shame, we, only, have failed! 
Shall we continue to hinder the full coming of His 
kingdom? Or shall we solemnly vow to-day that we 
will meet the conditions He has laid down for us to 
observe, and address ourselves to the task with re- 
newed diligence, stouter hearts and brighter hopes? 
''Men of action, clear the way!" 

Brethren, you have builded a house of worship, 
and are ''setting it apart" unto God, in a holy 
way, to-day. "What mean ye by these stones?" 
What does this monument — ^this church building — 
signify ? 

The twelve stones taken from the midst of the 
Jordan were builded by Joshua into a rough and 
sturdy monument, greater by far than the mighty 
Egyptian Pyramids and infinitely more significant to 
the children of Israel. That monument of stones be- 
came one ceaseless, impassioned, eloquent oration, re- 
citing to them and their children, and to their chil- 
dren's children, the history of Israel's delivery from 
bondage, their toilsome and wonderful journey in the 
wilderness, their possession of the promised land and 
the presence and help of Jehovah's great and gracious 
hand in it all. So, too, should this building — this 
"monument" you have erected — ^be an eloquent orator, 
declaring in no uncertain terms what was in your minds 
and hearts when you builded it. 

"What mean ye by these stones?" 

If you were intelligent in your purpose, and were 
advised by the word of God, you mean by "these 
stones" to declare your faith in some of the most 
wonderful and beautiful and enduring facts and 



264 SPECIAL SERMONS 

truths that were ever presented to human intelligence 
and human love — facts and truths that demand our 
faith in them and our practical regard. And, if you 
were thus intelligent and were thus advised, this build- 
ing will be eloquent in its proclamation of those facts 
and truths, and of your loyalty and devotion to them. 

Let us note some of the things this building should 
declare : 

First of all, it will say, in clear, solemn and un- 
mistakable terms, ''God should be worshiped by every 
responsible being in this community.'' 

And it should say this because God has said it. 
Upon a slab of rock sliced from the basaltic side of 
Sinai, God wrote, ''Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
God, and him only shalt thou serve." And by that 
same hand, in His own wonderful way. He has en- 
graven that same sentence upon the tablets of the 
hearts of some of us. The world is holding too lightly 
that solemn command. Even those who profess to be- 
lieve and accept it are not held in the grip of the awful- 
ness, solemnity and splendor of it, as they should be. 

This building will ever be saying, "Forsake not the 
assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of 
some is.'' If you wiU pause here as you pass by, 
unless your ears are dulled by doubt or disloyalty, 
you will hear a voice saying unto you, "Come hither, 
and do your devotions after the manner prescribed for 
you in the New Testament of my dear Son, your 
Saviour." And ceaselessly and lovingly will this voice 
call until you come, or until you can not hear. 

Continuing, this "building" will say, "I am stand- 
ing here simply and only as a church of Christ!" 

And this, because Jesus said, "On this rock I will 
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not pre- 



SIGNIFICANT MONUMENTS 265 

vail against it.'' Jesus builded no other chnrcli. Into 
the great spiritual superstructure builded on the foun- 
dation of the confessed truth that ''Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of the living God," He fits the ''living stones" 
that are prepared by His workmen; and this building 
declares that it will be the altar and worship ing-place 
of all such of these "living stones" as dwell in this 
community. 

Furthermore, this "monument" you have builded 
will proceed to declare, "Where the Scriptures speak, 
I will speak; and where the Scriptures are silent, I 
will be silent." And it will be very earnest and elo- 
quent when it makes this declaration, because these 
who builded this "monument" believe that we have 
God's v/ord in the sacred Scriptures — the blessed 
Bible. Indeed, if we have not His word here, then 
we have no "sure word." And, who besides God can 
speak authoritatively concerning salvation? He saves, 
and He only can declare the character and conditions 
of salvation. He is the One to be worshiped, and who 
but Him can declare the manner, method and charac- 
ter of that worship? "What must I do to be saved?" 
Let Him answer, and let no one else dare to answer. 

Furthermore, this "monument" will declare, "The 
whole world should know the truth, because it will 
make men free; and it is the duty of all Christians 
to go into all the world and preach the truth so that 
men may be made free." Jesus said: "Go ye, there- 
fore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you. And lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the age." 



266 SPECIAL SERMONS 

You mean, therefore, ^'by these stones," by this 
building, that you who worship here will do your best 
to see the terms of Jesus' commission carried out to 
its last demand. Nor will you be satisfied until Jesus 
be preached to the last man in the last land. 

Furthermore, and finally, this '^building" will be 
ever saying, ^'AU of God's people should be one." 
Three times did Jesus pray, ^'That they may be one. 
Father." 

The saddest and most tragic spectacle on this 
earth, and the very greatest sin on earth, is the 
divided condition of the church of the living God. 
I maintain that any one who purposefully creates and 
perpetuates divisions in the body of Christ is a greater 
sinner in the sight of God than the man who thrust 
the spear into the side of the crucified Lord. 

So, then, this *' monument" will ever plead with 
all those who love the Lord, urging them to be one. 
Not one upon any common denominator that may be 
wrought out for fractional Christianity, by the genius 
of man ; but one on the plan laid down by our Saviour 
in the new testament of His blood. Being what He 
tells us to be; believing what He tells us to believe; 
doing what He tells us to do — these only, and the one- 
ness for which He prayed will come. 

With right good grace can you give such a building 
to God to-day; and with full confidence in His will- 
ingness to receive it and use it to His own glory, you 
may surrender it to Him. 

Accept it. Father, and dwell in it, and cause it 
to be so precious to the hearts of those who worship 
here, that in their lives they shall bear the evidences 
of having been often with Thee here. In Jesus' name 
and for His sake, we pray. Amen ! 



SIGNIFICANT MONUMENTS 267 

DEDICATORY RESPONSIVE SERVICE. 
(Adapted from Isaac Errett.) 

The people will stand and join in the responses: 

Minister — ^We set apart this house to the worship 
of the living and true God, and to the service of Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. 

Congregation — ^We devote it to the preaching of the 
gospel of the grace of God for the conversion of sinners, 
and to the education of Christians in a knowledge of 
spiritual truth, in all the activities of Christian life. 

Minister — Here shall the incense of prayer and 
praise ascend to God. Here shall the ordinances of 
the Lord's house be sacredly observed. 

Congregation — Here shall the word of God, which 
liveth and abideth forever, be sounded out for the sal- 
vation of the perishing, and shine as a perpetual 
light to guide God's pilgrims through the night of 
time to the land of everlasting light. 

Minister — Here may children of sin and sorrow 
find a refuge from despair and ruin, and Christians 
a harbor to which they can resort when the tempest 
is high, and be safe. 

Congregation — May no discordant note of strife 
ever be heard within these walls, no unholy spirit of 
pride or worldliness find entrance here. 

Minister — ^And may God graciously accept this 
offering of a house in his name — an offering made by 
grateful hearts and willing hands — and bless every 
heart that shares in this gift. 

Congregation — ^May multitudes here be born to God, 
so that when all these here to-day shall have gone to 
their eternal home, others will take up the service 
until Jesus comes, and all His are gathered home. 



268 SPECIAL SERMONS 

Minister — To the glory of God, our Father, by 
v/hose favor we have builded; to the honor of Jesus, 
the Christ, the Son of the living God and our Saviour; 
to the praise of the Holy Spirit, source of life and 
light— 

Congregation — ^We dedicate this house. 

Minister — For worship in prayer and song; for the 
ministry of the "Word; for the observance of the holy 
ordinances — 

Congregation — ^We dedicate this house. 

Minister — To the sanctification of the family; to 
the training and nurture of childhood; to the inspira- 
tion of youth and the salvation of all — 

Congregation — ^We dedicate this house. 

Minister — To the help of the needy; to the pro- 
motion of brotherhood ; to the extension of the king- 
dom through the whole wide world — 

Congregation — ^We dedicate this house. 

All Together — And now ^^ establish thou the work 
of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands, 
establish thou it. And to thy blessed name, God, 
whose we are, and whom we serve, be honor and glory 
everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord.'' 



TTTJGB McLELLAN was horn m Glasgow, Sootland, and 
jH received his grammar-school education in Melbcmrne, 
Australia. Later he attended Transylvaniu College, where he 
received the B.A, and M.A. degrees. He has held three pas- 
torates — six years with the church of Christ, Shelbyville, Ky.; 
ten years with the church at RicJimond, Ky., and eleven years 
with the church at San Antonio, Tex., where Ms ministry con- 
timies nt this writing. 

Mr. McLellan is on the editorial staff of the San Antonio 
'^Express.'' He preached the convention sermon at the Louisville 
National Convention, and has a sermon in the ''Living Pulpit," 



269 



Church Anniversary Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introduction. — Story of Jacob's flight and return. 
I. Wliat Has tlie Pa^t Year Meant to Ourselves? 

1. Financially. 

2. In numbers. 

3. In grace. 

IL What Has Our Past Year Meant to Others? 
1. A real church is a missionary in'stitutioin. 

(1) In foreign lands. 

(2) In home lands. 

m. A Time for Beconsecration. 

1. How can we succeed without Grod? 

2. Sincere consecration wiU solve our problems. 

Conclusion. — [Remembrance of those who have passed beyond. 



270 



THEN AND NOW 

Church Anniversary Sermon by Hugh McLellan 

For with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am 
become two companies. — Gen. 32: 10. 

WHEN Jacob fled from his home, spurred on in 
haste by the anger of a deceived father and a 
robbed brother, he passed in his flight one of the fords 
of Jordan. As he said, he passed it with his staff. All 
he had was the stick within his hand. The past was 
full of terror and the future full of uncertainty. 
Still he was rich, for he carried in his heart the mem- 
ory of the bestowed blessing, and through the birth- 
right he had become the priest and mediator between 
God and his people. Also he had the memory of a 
vision, the sweetest dream of all the ages, and he could 
construct again in thought the golden ladder, and 
again summon the troops of angels. His material as- 
sets consisted of a w^ooden stick, but his spiritual as- 
sets were a blessing, an office and an experience. 

When he returned to the Jordan after his years 
with Laban, he was in a different case. God had 
blessed him abundantly and his family was a tribe. 
His flocks and herds moved in vast numbers over the 
desert; his servants were numerous as the servants 
of a king. The blessing had worked. It was without 
boast and with profound reverence to God that, stand- 
ing again at the ford of other days, he said, ''I passed 

271 



272 SPECIAL SERMONS 

over this Jordan with my staff; and now I am become 
two companies/' 

It was a time for retrospection, for meditation, and 
for resolve. The return to the Jordan marked the 
moment for a review of the past and a resolve for the 
future. Indeed, it was on the foundations of the past 
that he built his plans for the future. The crossing 
of the river again was the suggestive occasion for 
memories and resolves. And this is true with all of 
us. The anniversaries of critical experiences create in 
us exalted moods — ^moods of great gratitude and moods 
of high purpose. He is a dull man who can return 
in place or time to a life crisis and not rise in grati- 
tude or resolve nearer to God. In such a moment we 
stand on a ridge in the way of life. The past stretches 
back, seen from this height in true perspective; the 
future is hidden around the mountains, but as good- 
ness and mercy followed us in the way we have come, 
so shall they ^ ^follow us all the days of our life." 

Such a moment is this to which we have returned — 
a moment full of meaning to this congregation. This 
is our anniversary; it is a Jordan of time rather than 
of place. Once more we stand at the moment of our 
small beginnings, the days of our staff; and, like Jacob, 
we have become two bands. It is a time for retro- 
spection, for introspection and for purpose. It is not 
a time for idle boasting or hypocritical self-commenda- 
tion, all of which would but weaken our hands for 
future tasks and cloud the path for our feet. 

That we should rejoice in past success in God's 
work is natural and proper, but the glory is His, 
whose we are, whom we serve. That this band of dis- 
ciples surrounds this altar, our Ebenezer, is but proof 
that ''hitherto the Lord hath helped us/' and that we 



THEN AND NOW 273 

have been ''kept by the power of God." An anniver- 
sary which leaves God out is but a ''tinkling brass 
and clanging cymbal." Adjusting our hearts thus to 
a proper recognition of God, we can now take up some 
questions which naturally arise at every church an- 
niversary. 

I. What has the past year meant to ourselves? 

To Jacob the return to the Jordan meant the dif- 
ference between a staff and two bands. We, too, can 
rejoice that the past year has not been unfruitful. 
Knowing well that it is not the mission of any con- 
gregation to make itself materially important, it is 
still a matter for congratulation and gratitude that 
we are stronger as a group than we were a year ago. 
And this is seen in three ways. 

1. Financially. We all remember the struggles of 
the past when we were a feeble folk. When those, 
who passed, mocked like Sanballat, and wondered what 
this feeble group would do. There were days when 
the only way in which the Lord 's work was kept mov- 
ing was by the sacrifices of a faithful few. Debt hung 
like a millstone around our neck, and expenses 
loomed like high mountains in our path. We thank 
God that to-day we can look the world in the face, 
and point to an honorable discharge of our obliga- 
tions. And it must not be forgotten that a congre- 
gation, like an individual, has a name to keep. The 
world is closely scrutinizing us, and, in the funda- 
mentals of honesty and integrity, we are judged of 
all men. 

So it is with a reasonable pride that we point to 
a year's record in which this church has stood up to 
all its obligations and has earned the respect of right- 
thinking people. In this experience we have learned 

18 



274 SPECIAL SERMONS 

again the great truth that he who sows sparingly 
shall reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully 
shall reap bountifully. The greatest reaping of joy 
and satisfaction comes to those in this congregation 
who in the darker days sacrificed. Theirs now is the 
joy and victory, and God pours into their bosoms an 
overflowing blessing. 

2. In numbers. Numerically we are a stronger 
congregation than we were a year ago. This build- 
ing is rich in the traditions of souls born into the 
kingdom. The church has seen the power of the sim- 
ple gospel working the great change in the lives of 
men and women. Our ears have heard men confess 
with the mouth the Sonship of Christ, and our eyes 
have seen them buried with their Lord in the waters 
of baptism. And this to the Christian is his richest 
experience. He lives over again his own conversion 
in the conversion of others. 

Indeed, the high moments, after all, in the last year 
were not those of paid debts or big offerings, but of 
the great congregation in gospel revival, the fervid 
appeal, the welling song of invitation, and the walk- 
ing to the front of those who came to Christ. These 
were the scenes that stirred our hearts and these 
give us joy to-day. And would not this anniversary 
be meaningless were it otherwise? The living church 
is always an evangelical church, always a gospel 
church, always a witness for Christ and His truth. 
Back of the living church is the undying commission 
of the Master, and He is ''with us'' only as we carry 
out its terms. The church may have many functions, 
but one is chief. It is the herald of the kingdom. It 
is the voice in the wilderness. It is the moving lip 



THEN AND NOW 275 

through which the Spirit calls to sinners. If it is 
not this, it is nothing. 

3. In grace. Well might we ask ourselves in this 
anniversary if we have ''grown in grace.'' A year 
older should see us a year better. Have we moved 
up from the milk of the Word to the strong meat? 
These questions reveal a profound necessity which is 
laid on the church that it grow in grace. To be 
older and not nearer to God is like walking in a 
circle; it is motion without progress. The great func- 
tion of teaching is laid on the church with the same 
imperative as that of preaching. The truth within 
this Bible on the desk is still chained and powerless 
unless it has entered our lives. 

As we look back over the year we rejoice in the 
growth of the Bible school. Here the church may 
function as the teacher of the Word upon minds 
ready to receive. It is regrettable that not all the 
members of the church are engaged in this service. 
To know Christ ought to mean that we teach Him. 
Never before has the way been so open for this ser- 
vice. The work is organized, the literature is abun- 
dant and available, schools of methods instruct us in 
the art, and millions of young people wait on our 
words. A church which is not definitely and serious- 
ly engaged in teaching the will of God has little to 
celebrate in any anniversary. We put the emphasis 
on this teaching function because it is the secret of 
growth. A Christian can no more grow without the 
Word than a man can grow without food. It wiU be 
found that the weak and sickly are those who have 
substituted the husks of man's wisdom for the bread 
of life. This growth in grace is seen in the maturing 
holiness and the strengthening faith of the congrega- 



276 SPECIAL SERMONS 

tion. We rejoice in our strength, and in our numbers, 
but we rejoice rather in the fact that we live closer 
to God than we did one year ago. 

II. What has our past year meant to others? 

Apart from the financial, numerical and spiritual 
growth of the congregation itself there is the broad- 
ening work to be considered on the outside. A con- 
gregation may become big in size and small in spirit. 
A true congregation of Christ is always awake to its 
duties to the whole world. Its horizon is not limited 
to its own church walls. 

In a word, a real church is a missionary institu- 
tion, full of the missionary spirit, and glowing with 
missionary zeal. The church at Antioch, where the 
disciples first received the divine name, still stands 
as an example to all Christian churches in its action 
in choosing out Paul and Barnabas with John Mark, 
and later Silas, and laying hands on them and send- 
ing them out to preach the gospel in heathen lands. 
There is nothing more apostolic than the missionary 
enterprise. An unmissionary church is neither Scrip- 
tural nor humane. It has no favor with God or man. 
It is an anomaly in the world. 

In any anniversary of a church one of the highest 
experiences should be the report of the work of the 
church among the heathen. If the church is repre- 
sented by an actual missionary, his presence at the 
anniversary would mean more than anything else. If 
that may not be, then his report should be read. In 
this anniversary it is a matter of congratulation that 
we hold hands with a missionary across the seas, and 
that through him we are preaching the gospel to those 
who sit in darkness. The question that should arise 
in our hearts to-day is, ''Are we fully represented 



THEN AND NOW 277 

there?'' Does one missionary on the foreign field 
measure our spirit and ability, or are we keeping 
back ''part of the price''? Let us hope that when 
the next anniversary arrives we shall be able to re- 
port another field occupied in the name of Christ and 
of this congregation. 

In addition, it is a matter for congratulation that 
our missionary zeal recognizes the importance of 
preaching the truth in the homeland. A Christian 
America is itself a missionary influence in the world, 
and it should be our aim to save our own land for 
Christ that through it the world may see what God 
hath wrought. In addressing ourselves to this work, 
we should remember that America needs the simple 
gospel. Like the Laodiceans, the people of the United 
States are rich and increased in goods, and think they 
have need of nothing, but, like the Laodiceans, in the 
true riches they are naked and blind. Our country 
needs the unadulterated gospel of Christ to save its 
soul. Being saved, it becomes a base of operations for 
the salvation of the whole world. This saving work 
is in circles. First the individual, then the family, 
then the city or community, then our own land, then 
the whole world. The ever-widening waves of gospel 
truth should not rest until they wash up against the 
shores of the farthest land. 

III. A time for reconsecration. 

Benjamin Franklin, when speaking before the Con- 
stitutional Convention, urging that the convention ask 
divine guidance in its deliberations, said: ''If it be 
true that a sparrow can not fall without His notice, 
how can it be that an empire shall rise without His 
aid?" It was a word fitly spoken. We would do 
weU to ponder it, and in this anniversary ask, "How 



278 SPECIAL SERMONS 

can we succeed without God?" We have indicated 
that this anniversary is a season for recapitulation; 
it is more a season of reconsecration. "We set the 
watch in vain if we watch without Him; we build 
the walls in vain if we lay a stone without Him. On 
this occasion this church should open its soul to God. 
If He enters our lives, we must succeed. We shall be 
the speaking mouth, but He shall be the voice; we 
shall be the moving hand, but He shall be the strength ; 
we shall be the visible body, but He shall be the life. 

The apostolic power shall be ours only as the 
apostolic indwelling of the Spirit is ours. We ought 
to be able to give the apostolic secret of the victorious 
life, ''I live, yet not I, for Christ liveth in me.'' It 
was said of Stephen's persecutors that '^they were 
not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit with which 
he spake." And this wisdom and this spirit were of 
God. Our own wisdom and our own spirit are easily re- 
sisted, but the Spirit of God in us is mighty and will 
prevail. So let us open our hearts to the Spirit of 
God, that as we move forward from this anniversary 
day we may do so in His wisdom and power. 

This kind of consecration will solve all the difficul- 
ties and problems confronting us in the year ahead. 
If we are consecrated, so are our money, our time, 
our energy, our talents and our wills. There are no 
financial or missionary problems unsolved by a con- 
secrated congregation. In giving itself it gives all. 
If the subjective problem is solved, the objective prob- 
lem ceases to exist. The giants which the spies saw 
in Canaan were mere men distorted by cowardice. 
There were no giants to Joshua and Caleb. Canaan 
lies before us, and we are weU able to go up and 
possess the land. 



THEN AND NOW 279 

Conclusion. It would be a sad mistake if in this 
anniversary we failed to remember those who were 
with us one year ago, but are not here to-day. Some 
of those who worked with us, and bore the heat and 
burden of the day, have entered into rest. So is this 
congregation represented in heaven. And this teaches 
us that with each anniversary we, too, are nearing the 
temple which is eternal in the heavens. The church 
which we now see is a meeting-place and a parting- 
place. The tides flow in, then flow out. It is like the 
story told of the old Arab who, one day at evening, 
after traveling across the desert, came to a pretentious 
building on the edge of an oasis. He tethered his 
camel at the gate and went into the hall, and, spread- 
ing his carpet, lay down to rest. Soon a noble-looking 
Arab entered and demanded of the traveler what he 
was doing in the king's palace. The Arab replied that 
he took the building for a caravansary. *'No,'' said 
the other, ''it is the king's palace, and I am the king.'' 
The traveler then asked the king how long he had 
lived there; and he told him. He then asked who 
lived in it before he did. He answered, ''My father." 
"And who before him?" "His father," and so on 
back through many generations. "Then," asked the 
traveler, "who shall live here after you?" "My 
son," he answered. "And after him?" "His son, 
and so on down to the end of time." "Well," said 
the traveler, "any house which receives and sends out 
such a continuous succession of guests is not a palace, 
but a caravansary." Such in one aspect is the church 
with its passing congregations. We come into this 
sweet fellowship only to pass out sooner or later into 
the fellowship on high. These anniversaries reveal the 
silent movement of these tides of life, and the names 



280 SPECIAL SERMONS 

of those who have rolled up the carpet and moved 
away beyond the horizon are in our hearts. If it 
be that people come and go through this church, we 
should see to it that while they rest thus in the earth- 
ly caravansary, they are touched with grace to fit them 
for the eternal home. 



TTZILMEE B. WALKER was horn at BrooTcs, la., July 5, 
rr 1869 y and received Ms education at Ada, 0.; Angola, Ind.; 
Eiram, 0., and Columbia, New York. 

For two years he was minister of the church of Christ at Char- 
don, 0.; three years at Martinshurg, 0.; twelve years at KillhiLcJc, 
0., and since 1920 has b.een with the Indianolu Church at Cohmn- 
tus, 0. 

Mr. Walker was delegate from Holmes County to the fourth 
Constitutional Convention of the State of Ohio in 1912. 

From_ 1913 to 1916 he was a teacher in the Phillips Bible 
Institute, Canton, 0., and from 1916 to 1919 a teacher of the 
New Testament in Bethany College, Bethany, W. Va, 



281 



Ministers^ Ordination Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introduction. 

I. Preach the Word. 

1. It needs no recasting. 

2. Avoid undigested theories. 

II. Preach So as to Bring Repentance. 

1. Preach sin's punishment as eternal. 

2. Tell despairing souls of God's love. 

III. Preach Positively and Constructively. 

1. To do this you must live what you preach. 

2. You must preach to save the world. 

3. You must preach the straight gospel, 

IV. Piorget Not Your Sftudy Hahits. 

1. Study nature. 

2. Study men. 

8. Study the times. 

4. Study God's word. 

6. Be teachers as well as students. 

V. Remember the Rewa^rd of the Faithful Minister. 

1. The nature of your work is a reward. 

2. You will he spared the temptations of the rich. 

3. Your social life will be a joy. 

4. The knowledge that you are helping is compensation. 



2S2 



PREACH THE WORD 

Ministers' Ordination Sermon by W. R. Walker"^ 

'Scripture— 1 Tim. 4: 6-16; 2 Tim. 4:1-5; Tit. 2:7, 8. 

MY Brethren : I am to speak to you of the solemn, 
but blessed, responsibilities and opportunities of- 
fered in the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

My inability to speak with the wisdom befitting the 
occasion is perhaps more than compensated by the in- 
terest manifested by this large congregation assem- 
bled at this early hour to participate in these holy 
moments of consecrated dedication. 

Sufficient justification for the program of the morn- 
ing may be found, should Scriptural precedent for it 
be questioned. Special, solemn, prayerful services 
grace and dignify the important moment when young 
men are formally sent forth as ambassadors for Christ 
by a church great in its historic traditions, devotion 
and loyalty to the revealed will of Jesus Christ. 

Bethany Memorial Church has consented to lay its 
hands of blessing and approval upon you because it 
has confidence that you will honor your holy calling. 
Proof of your ministry has already been produced. 
You have brought some wave sheaves as an evidence 
of your skill in harvesting souls for the kingdom. 



Delivered, Bethany, W. Va., June 1, 1917, at 6 a. m. 

283 



284 SPECIAL SERMONS 

This has been required that we might not violate 
the Pauline injunction to ''lay hands suddenly upon 
no man." 

The lofty sentiment of your motto, ''Not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister,'' is suggestive of 
high ideals and Christlike spirit. The prayers and 
heartfelt benedictions of the congregation thus honor- 
ing you will ever be an unfailing source of help and 
encouragement when passing through the trials and 
discouragements incident to a life of ministering. 

Let me first direct your attention to the message 
we entrust to you. You are to preach tJie Word, 

This means that you are limited to the same Word 
which Jesus and his apostles preached, the Word able 
to make men wise unto salvation, the Holy Bible, the 
only infallible teaching God has given to men. The 
spiritual epochs of the church have always been those 
in which the gospel has been preached in fidelity, and 
with convincing power. The message for a lost world 
remains the same through all generations. That which 
condemns men to-day condemned the first pair in 
Eden. The sinners, priests and rulers in Jerusalem 
sinned just as men sin now. Human passions, hopes, 
fears, joys, sorrows and needs have not changed 
through the centuries, but are the same as those 
that ruled in the hearts of Jesus' auditors nineteen 
hundred years ago. That which meets the deepest 
needs of life in one age is certain to meet them in 
every age. 

Therefore, your message requires no recasting. It 
is not new, but we hope it will be delivered with a 
new power. Proclaim it as if anointed with an unc- 
tion from on high. Preach Christ as living and reg- 
nant. Make him a personality throbbing with life, felt 



PREACH THE WORD 285 

in the hearts of those to whom you minister. John 
Brown, of Haddington, once preached before the skep- 
tical scientist, David Hume. Hume went away saying, 
''That is the man for me; he means what he says; he 
speaks as if Jesus were at his elbow.'' I tell you, 
brethren, Jesus is at the elbow of every one worthy of 
Him, whose supreme desire is to proclaim His gospel 
in its purity and simplicity. 

Preach Him as the world's only Saviour, the only 
one with authority to forgive sin. ''And in none other 
is there salvation: for neither is there any other name 
under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we 
must be saved." The salvation taught in the New Tes- 
tament as coming through Jesus Christ is the forgive- 
ness of sin. It is not a field for philosophic specula- 
tion, nor is it entirely a matter of character. It is a 
simple doctrine if taught as inspired men presented it; 
preach it with full assurance that you have the author- 
ity of Jesus Himself for your message. 

You have here avowed your faith in the Bible as 
God's inspired word. In your student life you have 
examined the evidences on which this faith is based, 
and found them convincing beyond doubt. Now, 
preach the Bible as if you believe it. Most of the in- 
difference so noticeable to-day in many quarters is due 
to a lack of faith in the old Book. Much present-day 
preaching, even, has lost its note of assurance. The 
questioning attitude of the university which boasts 
that its chief function is to raise doubts is being intro- 
duced into the pulpit with a resultant loss of faith in 
the eternal verities. A certain brand of criticism is 
offering us stones of humanitarian philosophy and 
"evoluted" eclecticism in religion, but we are hunger- 
ing for the bread of revelation from God. Do not 



286 SPECIAL SERMONS 

imagine that your people either desire or need philo- 
sophic vagaries. They need the word of life. 

Trouble not the people with undigested theories, 
nor predigested tabloids of scientific, speculative dog- 
matism. There is so much golden truth, tested in the 
crucible of experience, tried in the fire of application, 
that there is no occasion for proclaiming untried and 
unproven theories which may contain much dross of 
error. "With the stone of fact hurled from the sling 
of confident faith, you can smite unbelief as it hides 
behind the shield of science, falsely so called. 

Your own studies, leading you into many fields and 
familiarizing you with substitute religions, may tempt 
you to offer some of your discoveries instead of the 
plain gospel story. Yield not to such temptation. 
No one will be fed with that kind of ministering, and 
the only thing satisfied by it will be your own vanity. 

Preach so as to weaken no one's faith. Even an 
imperfect faith is superior to doubt. Doubts are fiends 
ruled by the same law as other demons, thriving on 
attention, starving if not fed and fondly coddled. The 
normal state of every heart is one of belief rather 
than doubt. Make it clear in your preaching that 
the presumption is always against doubt. It is scarcity 
of argument or questionable testimony that makes a 
position doubtful. Otherwise it would be in the posi- 
tion occupied by faith. When compelled to go into the 
miasmatic lowlands of doubt, dread, despair, where 
duty may occasionally call you, tarry no longer than 
necessary to drain the infected region. Return speedily 
to the healthful highlands of faith and trust. It is 
courageous to enter plague-smitten districts to carry 
help, but foolhardy to abide there. 



PREACH THE WORD 287 

Preach so as to bring men to repentance. Repent- 
ance is what men most need to-day. A new crusade 
in the spirit of John the Baptist is necessary to save 
the age. Men laugh at sin instead of fearing it. They 
toy with it instead of hating it. They view it through 
reversed telescope, then deny both its magnitude and 
hideousness. They are so blinded by the smoke of 
their sacrifices, offered upon altars of materialism and 
commercialism, that they can not see that what God 
requires is justice, mercy and a contrite spirit. Self, 
not Jehovah, is their god, and success rather than 
service their pole-star. 

Hesitate not to preach sin's punishment as eter- 
nal. Even if some have eliminated hell from their 
scheme of things, it has not been eliminated from 
God's word. Destructive critics may expurgate it 
from their eclectic bible, but that can not change the 
Bible whose truth shall never become falsehood. The 
certainty of future retribution must be proclaimed to 
touch certain natures. 

Perhaps the goodness of God may move more peo- 
ple, so neglect not that, but rather magnify it as your 
ability permits. There are always prodigals whose 
hearts will be melted by a portrayal of potential for- 
giveness in the Father's heart. Let despairing souls 
hear of God's love and self-righteous ones of his jus- 
tice and mercy. 

Preach positively and constructively. Guard 
against becoming mere rebukers and critics. Your ex- 
perience with frail humanity will tempt you to de- 
pend too much, perhaps, upon the plucking-up process. 
Jesus' teaching is that evil is to be remedied not so 
much by denunciation as by the growth of a new 
spirit. ''You must be bom again" is still the law of 



288 SPECIAL SERMONS 

regeneration and admission to Christ's kingdom. A 
heart with new ideals implanted is safer than one 
with old ideals uprooted. Your work is a hundred 
times more positive than negative. That is what makes 
it difficult. Little talent and weak energy are suf- 
ficient to pull down; the gravity of inertia performs 
most of such labor. But to construct, re-create, re- 
quires ability, skill, hard work and perseverance. 

A most vital truth is now suggested. Your word 
of teaching must be energized by incarnation. It was 
so with Jesus. He began '^both to do and to teach.'' 
The latter without the former would not have saved 
a single soul, even Jesus being powerless to work a 
miracle of that sort. How imperative, then, that his 
present-day representatives should live the life they 
expect of others. A chief reason why the spoken mes- 
sage produces so much more fruit than the written 
one is that it is illustrated in the person of the 
preacher. If the minister does not live his own teach- 
ing, he is sounding brass and clanging cymbal. 

You are to be living epistles. Right or wrong, the 
world will look to you for leadership in living, and 
will study more closely what you do than what you 
say. The flock of God has been ravaged by wolves in 
sheep's clothing often enough to be wary. Live much 
with God in prayer and meditation on His word that 
the peculiar temptations of the preacher may be 
overcome. 

The very intimacy of your association with the 
people will necessitate constant watchfulness and 
guarding, that it lead you not into temptation's 
power. 

A word on the urgency of your ministry. You 
are to preach to save the world. This has been af- 



PREACH THE WORD 289 

firmed before, but its importance requires special 
emphasis. 

A gospel of salvation necessarily implies a lost 
state. If there is no hell, there is most certainly no 
heaven; the one necessitates the other. The gospel 
of Christ, which we to-day send you forth to preach 
with our sanction, will accomplish in the fullest sense 
the salvation of all who accept it. What an honor to 
be assigned a part with God in the remaking of 
marred images of his likeness. 

It is soul-thrilling to come to the kingdom for such 
a time as this. It requires no magic vision to see 
that we are in a period when a new age is being born, 
nor oracular powers to forecast the next decade or 
two as startlingly eventful. Another millennium is roll- 
ing round. The cloud of augury heralding its charac- 
ter has both a dark and bright side. The dark reveals 
that we have been walking on a very thin crust of 
civilization over a molten sea of barbarism. The politi- 
cal and industrial eruptions have become almost a con- 
stant roar. Smoke of threat and lava of destruction 
are belching out of furnaces of malice and hate in un- 
regenerate hearts. The red glare of materialistic com- 
mercialism makes lurid the plain of human activity. 
Priests of Mammon are parading their heartless god 
with brazen and thunderous acclaim. Why all this, 
when leaders in this unholy riot are flattering Jesus by 
prating the Sermon on the Mount? They are publicly 
lauding Him and His teachings to blind us to the fact 
that they are privately trampling them underfoot. Th(> 
German philosophy of the power of might (the legiti- 
mate child of modern evolutionary teaching) has sup- 
planted the New Testament doctrine that greatness con- 
sists in humility, purity, righteousness, service. It is 

19 



290 SPECIAL SERMONS 

time that men be made to understand that it is impos- 
sible to sow a theory of God's being chained, rendered 
helpless by his own laws through the operation of which 
the ^'fittest" survive, without reaping the harvest of 
ruthlessness, lust, contempt for contract, and all that 
has gone with German culture. 

That which illumines the bright side of the cloud 
is the fact that multitudes are being filled with hor- 
ror at the effects of the cold-blooded commercialism 
of the age, and are beginning to see the cause of the 
world's bitterness, hate and infidelity. They are try- 
ing the quack remedies of communism because its title 
spells brotherhood, and acclaiming every theory that 
promises peace. What a day for the preacher of the 
gospel of peace on earth, good will among men ! What 
an opportunity to show the inefficiency of the plans of 
selfish men, and the effectiveness of Jesus' plan on un- 
selfish service. What a time for men who, like Jonah, 
hesitate not to declare the fall of a nation that will not 
repent, and bring sinners to their knees in penitential 
confession. The real saviors of the times are the 
preachers courageous enough to rebuke sin wherever 
found. Men that fearlessly rebuke the rich who oppress 
and the poor who defraud. Who show that life con- 
sists in what it is, not in what it has. You must pull 
the bit on those who would recklessly rush to the 
charge, and use the spur on those who lag or are in- 
different to the battle raging about them. Show that 
the only way to pluck the world out of the abyss is to 
put Grod on the throne. 

Never have such burdens been laid on men's shoul- 
ders, but never have backs been so able to bear them. 
Not only does God temper the wind to the shorn 
lamb, He also suits the burden to the back that is to 



PREACH THE WOED 291 

bear it. The intricate and complicated life of what 
has been called Christian civilization appalls us, and, 
were it not for onr faith in God, would dishearten. 
But everywhere men are turning to the Bible with 
new interest and hope that it may furnish solution 
to our problems. The inevitable result of honest 
study of this sort is to deepen their faith in the 
program of Jesus as all-sufficient to meet every need 
of men. 

Forget not your study habits. Linger frequently 
in any field of study where Christ Himself tarried. 
Nature, God's unwritten Bible, will wonderfully en- 
rich your illustrative possessions. Fields and flowers, 
birds and bees, may provide more helpful sermonic 
material than the philosophic wisdom of Plato. Facts 
of science (not often, its theoretic speculation) will 
also serve you well in bringing lessons to the people 
to whom you minister. The God who inspired the 
Book established every law of nature, and they will 
always harmonize, and, at times, illumine each other. 

Be students of men. It is axiomatic that a knowl- 
edge of those whom you would serve is imperative 
if you would minister efficiently. The depths of your 
own soul will be the best text-book in the study of 
man, for the motives and thought methods of the race 
are one. 

You will need to keep in touch with the currents 
of social and religious thought also. Some new phases 
of life and duty will be presented for your considera- 
tion. Most of that which will pose as new, upon ex- 
amination will be found to be old philosophy or theory 
relabeled. You must be able to read discerningly in 
order to winnow the wheat of fact from the chaff of 
assumption. 



292 SPECIAL SERMONS 

First, last, always, study the Bible. Paul exhorts 
Timothy *^to give heed to reading, to exhortation, to 
teaching.'' Again he is urged, ''Give diligence to pre- 
sent thyself approved nnto God, a workman that need- 
eth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of 
truth/' Our New Testament provides you a larger 
library than Timothy had. Its fathomless wisdom, its 
correct appraisal of the human heart, its admonitions, 
its instruction in righteousness, its satisfying promises, 
its simple profundity, will constantly astonish and de- 
light you, bringing new assurance that it is in a most 
unique and peculiar sense God's word. 

How marvelous its completeness in moral content. 
It contains less than half the material of a metropoli- 
tan Sunday paper, yet in nineteen centuries no new 
moral truth has been discovered. 

You are to be teachers as well as students. This is 
a reason for being a growing student. There is little 
crowding in the ranks of real teachers of the holy Book. 

Here is a field worthy of your best endeavor, and 
fruitful beyond your highest hopes. This Word will 
never return void. Somewhere it will enrich and save 
the life of one lost. 

I have a conviction that we are entering a period 
in which the work of teaching will be restored to its 
New Testament prominence. As ministers, you will need 
to lead in this. There is a false liberalism abroad of 
which you must beware. It asks the surrender of vital 
New Testament teaching to what it is pleased to call ex- 
pedient practice of Christian union. On the plea of 
charity, it would alter the divine terms of membership 
in Christ's church. The true minister will be neither 
less nor more charitable than the New Testament 
warrants. 



PREACH THE WORD 293 

The Christian world is groping for a platform for 
Christian union, and many are the bases suggested. 
Few who are doing what they think to be pioneer 
work in this matter appreciate the fact that the New 
Testament itself provides the only basis on which per- 
manent union can be consummated. You will have a 
coveted opportunity to present that basis when periods 
of discussion on this subject occur. You can, and you 
should, conscientiously agree to stand with every fol- 
lower of Christ on that platform. In the meantime, 
you should desire and cultivate the largest possible 
fellowship with all believers in Christ, consistent with 
absolute loyalty to Him. 

Your success will depend much upon the faithful- 
ness with which you discharge your pastoral duties. 
The good Shepherd gave his life for the sheep. So 
must you. Unless that is literally true, yours will not 
be a ministry. Faithful serving will be fully compen- 
sated in that day when the Lord knights you as a 
member of the Order of Basin and Towel. 

In closing, I direct your attention to the reward 
of the faithful minister. Your labor itself will be its 
own best remuneration. No wage is so satisfying as 
the peace and joy growing out of a consciousness that 
you are laboring together with God, in a partnership 
where both profits and losses will be mutually shared. 
When humiliated by apparent failure, the Lord will 
halve your burden by helping bear your disappoint- 
ment. When elated with success, he will double your 
joy by sharing it. 

There should be some relief in the knowledge that 
you will be spared the temptations of the rich. Your 
salary will be much less than you might have by em- 
ploying your talent otherwise, and it is well that it is 



294 SPECIAL SERMONS 

so. The church can never afford to offer inducements 
to men who are worldly-minded, ambitious or greedy, 
no matter what their intellectual equipment. To do 
so would invite spiritual stagnation or death. The 
scanty monetary reward automatically sifts out such 
as are not consecrated, and no better plan can be de- 
vised. You will not measure your life by the stan- 
dards others use. It will not be rich in earthly pos- 
sessions, but rich in things moth and rust can not cor- 
rupt nor thieves steal; namely, gratitude, respect, love 
from those you serve. You will be admitted to the 
inner life of people where few are permitted to enter. 
You will be with them in their joys. At the banquet, 
family reunion, social circle, you will be an honored 
guest. 

In many homes where the intimacy of the family 
group is broken to admit just one outsider, the 
preacher is the one for whom the door swings wide. 
At the wedding, where united hearts are sealed, you 
will be invited to throw the mantle of religious ap- 
proval over the founding of a new home. 

Yours will be the privilege of sharing the deepest 
sorrows with those to whom you minister. This ex- 
perience may sadden, but it can wonderfully bless. 
You will learn the hidden meaning of the proverb 
that it is better to go to the house of mourning than 
to the house of feasting. 

When erring, careless members of the family are 
to be won back to Christ, when financial disaster 
drives its shaft of gloom and despondency, when the 
pall of death settles slowly or the sudden storm of 
tragedy breaks, yours will be the supreme joy of 
drawing forth, from the fountains of revealed truth, 
things new and old, that will heal hearts, quiet fears, 



PREACH THE WORD 295 

renew courage, strengthen faith, rekindle hope. What 
a wonderful, blessed, rich life you may have! 

My prayer for you is that you may so labor that 
when nature's warning voices announce the approach 
of the life that is life indeed, you shall be able to find 
a true minister's joy in saying with Paul: ''I am al- 
ready being offered, and the time of my departure is 
at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished 
the course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is 
laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that 
day, and not to me only, but also to all them that 
have loved his appearing/' 



Ti^AEK COLLIS was horn Sept. 21, 1851, in London, England, 
J.wJ, and received his later education at Transylvania College 
and the College of the Bihle, Lexington, Ky, 

He was minister of the church of Christ at Midway, Ky., four 
years; professor of English in Transylvania six years, and has 
been minister of the Broadway Church, Lexington, Ky., thirty 
years, 

Mr. CoUis served as trustee of the College of the Bible at 
Lexington thirty years, and was chairman of the board twenty- 
five years. He was curator in Transylvanva College twenty-five 
years, and a trustee of Hamilton College for thirty years. 

For thirty 'five years he has been a trustee of the Kentuchy 
Female Orphan School at Midway, xind president of the board for 
twenty-five years. 



297 



Thanksgiving Day Sermon 

OUTLINE 

IntroductioiL 

I. If Unthankfulness to Man Is Despicable, What Sliall We 

Say of Untliankfuliiess to Crod? 

1. This is the greatest sin of the heathen world. 

2. Prom the heathen world God took out a people for 

Himself. 

II. If Men Were Called upon to Thank Crod in Former Dis- 

pensations, How Much More Should They Do So Now? 

1. Think of the country God prepared for us. 

2, Think of the people He prepared to compose this 

nation. 

3. Think of the principless set forth by our great first 

Congress. 

4, Think of our religious liberty and our blessings from 

God's word. 

m. How Shall We Kightly Give Thanks and Show Our 

Gratitude? 

1. In our worship. 

2. By a thank-offering. 

3. By helping the needy. 

17. What Does the Bight Giving of Thanks Do for the 
Giver? 

1. Gratitude expands the soul. 

2. Ingratitude shrivels and debases. 

V. What Is the Outcome of the Grateful Life? 
Victory and glory forever. 



298 



IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS 

Thanksgiving Day Sermon by Mark Collis 

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in 
Christ Jesus to you-ward. — 1 Thess. 5: 18. 



w 



HAT trait of character is more beautiful than 
gratitude? "What baser than ingratitude? 

**Blow, blow, thou winter wind, 
Thou art not so unkind 
As man's ingratitude; 
Thy tooth is not so keen, 
Because thou art not seen, 
Although thy breath be made." 

Ingratitude means unthankfulness. 
I. If unthankfulness to man is so despicable, what 
shall we say of unthankfulness to God? 

1. This, Paul says (Eom. 1:21), is the greatest sin 
of the heathen world. He tells how God revealed 
Himself to the heathen, even His everlasting power 
and divinity, so that they are without excuse, because 
that knowing God they glorified Him not as God, 
neither gave thanks. The climax of this wickedness 
was unthankfulness. Ingratitude is heathenish. 

2. From the heathen world God took out a people 
for his own possession. He revealed Himself to them 
as He had not done to other peoples. With a mighty 
hand He delivered them from their oppressors. For 
forty years He manifested Himself to them in the 
pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, 

299 



300 SPECIAL SERMONS 

while He fed them with angels' food. He led them on 
with increasing blessings. Recounting those blessings 
in his farewell address, Moses said: 

^ * The Lord alone did lead them, 
And there "was no strange God wi*th them. 
He made them to ride on the high places of the earth 
And they did eat the increase of the field: 
He made them to suck honey out of the rock 
And oil out of the flinty rock: 
Butter of kine and milk of sheep. 
With fat of lambs^ 

And rams of the breed of Bashan and goats, 
With the fat of kidneys of wheat; 
And of the blood of the grape did they drink wine." 

Now they are about to enter the land promised to their 
fathers, ''a good land, a land of brooks of water, of 
fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and 
hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig- 
trees, and pomegranates ; a land of oil olive, and honey ; 
a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarce- 
ness, and thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land 
whose stones were iron, and out of whose hills thou 
may est dig brass. '^ Having enjoyed such wonderful 
blessing in the past, and now about to enter into the 
enjoyment of blessings still more wonderful, one would 
think the hearts of those people would have overflowed 
with gratitude, but as Moses looked upon them, he said : 

'^Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. 
They waxed fat, they grew thick, they became sleek, 
They forsook God who made them. 
And lightly esteemed the Eoek of their salvation." 

As I read those words I imagine I can hear the 
old man who for forty years had patiently borne with 
the unbelief and the ingratitude of the people whom 



IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS 301 

he addressed. He compared them to fat bulls that bad 
been pampered and had grown sleek, and never thought 
of the hand that fed them and groomed them and 
gave them a place where they could lie down in safe- 
ty. "What scorn there must have been in his voice as 
he uttered those words! Who was it that had thus 
grown fat and sleek? Jeshurun. Who was Jeshurun? 
Jeshurun means righteous. They were not a heathen 
people, but a people who professed to know God, and 
to worship and to serve him. But they were un- 
grateful. 

Still God led these people, who did not thank Him, 
into the land of Canaan. He kept His covenant with 
them. There they inhabited cities that they builded 
not, dwelt in houses filled with all good things that 
they filled not, drank of cisterns which they digged 
not, ate of trees and vineyards which they planted 
not — ^yet they forgot God. And he said through Isaiah, 
''The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's 
crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not 
consider.'' And through Hosea He said, ''She did 
not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and 
multiplied her silver and her gold, which she pre- 
pared for Baal." The blessings that God bestowed, de- 
voted to that beastly heathen god! What a prostitu- 
tion of noble gifts! Is it not repeated in Christian 
lands? 

But all did not bow the knee to Baal. In contrast 
with the words of condemnation uttered through 
prophetic lips, the Psalmist exultingly sings: "0 give 
thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name; make 
known his deeds among the people. Eemember his 
marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and 
the judgments of his mouth." 



302 SPECIAL SERMONS 

II. If men were called upon to thank God for His 
gifts in former dispensations, how much more should 
we call upon our souls and all that is within us to bless 
and magnify His holy name in these times and in 
this land where God is pouring out upon us blessings 
in such rich profusion! "We sing -^^ Count your bless- 
ings, name them one by one," but that is impossible. 
They are innumerable. Some of them are so rare 
and wonderful, and we are so dull and stupid, that 
we can not recognize them. But let us think of those 
that we can number. Truly God has not dealt with 
any people as he has with us. 

Think of this good land which He prepared for us. 
In the ages past, He lifted up a great chain of moun- 
tains as a backbone for our continent from which 
slopes half the arable land of the world, then He traced 
mighty river systems and scooped out broad lakes till 
He had made a way for five-sixths of the fresh water 
of the globe, then He laid away under this soil un- 
parallelled wealth of oil and gas and coal and iron 
and precious metals. Through uncounted millenniums 
the great Architect toiled to prepare a fit place for 
our nation. 

Then He prepared a people to compose this nation. 
Who were they? The men and women from whom 
sprang those who were worthy to lift the torch of 
liberty to enlighten the world. They came from 
among men and women who had felt the thrill of 
that new life which was born from the revival of 
learning and the Protestant Reformation. From these 
people God picked the sturdy Pilgrim Fathers to 
found the New England colonies. From brave, liberty- 
loving Holland He brought men that were needed to 
found New Amsterdam; Quakers and the choicest 



IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS 303 

souls of Germany He brought to cultivate the fertile 
fields of Pennsylvania; high-born Loyalists with their 
chivalry and culture He brought to be the great 
planters of Virginia; the noblest hearts of France, 
longing for religious toleration and the right to think 
for themselves and to act as their consciences dictated, 
He brought to people the Carolinas. From the off- 
spring of these varied types assembled the first Con- 
gress to decide the great principles for which this 
nation was to stand. Some one has said, '^That Con- 
gress was composed of the finest body of men ever 
gathered in the history of the world." 

From the day on which that Congress adjourned, 
the mighty hand of infinite wisdom and goodness has 
been over this nation in divine benediction. Our land 
has had its days of adversity; at times it seemed as if 
the nation would be torn asunder because of policies 
that seemed irreconcilable. But out of these conflicts 
God led us into times of peace and prosperity. 

To-day safe investments are available; conscien- 
tious labor is rewarded; luxuries are possible to the 
many, while few are without the necessities of life; 
the unfortunates are provided for in wisely managed 
institutions sustained by the generosity of a philan- 
thropic people; education from the common schools to 
the university is accessible to all. More is being done 
to-day in this land of ours for the physical, intellec- 
tual and moral good of the people than ever before. 
We have driven out the diabolical liquor traffic, never 
to return; by the enfranchisement of woman, we have 
put the ballot into the hand of the most moral, the 
most independent, and, some would say, the most intel- 
ligent element of our nation. Truly we can say, 
''God has not dealt so with any other people.'' 



304 SPECIAL SERMONS 

But there are blessings as far transcending those 
which we have enumerated as the heavens transcend 
the earth. We live in a land where the influence of 
the Bible is shed on every side; every individual feels 
it; every institution is affected by it; it is the chief 
cause of our prosperity and happiness, the bulwark 
of our liberty, the guaranty of our future national 
welfare, the foundation of our progress, the anchorage 
of our destiny. 

It is the Bible that makes God known to us as 
our Creator, Preserver and bountiful Benefactor; who 
watches over us as individuals so that not a hair of 
our head can fall to the ground without His knowl- 
edge; who has appointed the bounds of our nation, 
and who, if we permit Him, will preside over its 
councils so that we may know the meaning of that 
Old Testament beatitude, *' Happy is that people whose 
God is Jehovah.'^ 

Still more wonderfully does the Bible reveal God 
to us in Christ Jesus, our Saviour and our Lord, 
through whom so many enjoy the blessings of pardon 
and of adoption into the family of God, becoming 
heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ to an in- 
heritance that is incorruptible, undefiled and that f adeth 
not away. In anticipation of this inheritance, the Holy 
Spirit is bestowed upon us; He is called in the Scrip- 
ture the earnest of our future possession; He takes 
our inarticulate groanings and presents them as inter- 
cessions at the throne of grace; He witnesses with our 
spirits that we are the children of God, and through 
Him we are able to bring forth those beautiful fruits 
of righteousness that adorn the Christian life. Lan- 
guage can not express the value of these spiritual bless- 
ings which God has bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus. 



IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS 305 

These blessings are general so far as God's children 
are concerned. They are enjoyed by all who have 
named the name of Christ. But every one has 
his own peculiar blessing, some special joy or de- 
liverance. Perhaps chief of all we should think of 
that help that came to us in time of trouble, or the 
good that we were conscious of receiving from what 
we thought at the time would break our hearts. Did 
it not prove to be one of the greatest blessings of our 
lives, when the thorn tormented us, to hear God's 
voice saying, ''My grace is sufficient for you, my 
strength is made perfect in your weakness''? And we 
learned how to cast our care upon God, knowing that 
He careth for us, and we came to know that all things 
work together for our good because we love Him, and 
are called according to His purpose. 

So among our blessings we give a prominent place 
to our afflictions because they wean our affections from 
the things that are seen to the things that are not 
seen, give us a fineness of character that can come 
in no other way, and lead us to that happy place 
where we shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
more; where the sun shall not smite us, but where 
the Lamb shaU lead us to living fountains of water, 
and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. 

I have mentioned but a few of the blessings which 
the Father of lights has bestowed upon us, but sure- 
ly they are sufficient to cause us to acknowledge that 
it is ''a good thing to give thanks to Jehovah." 

III. How shall we give thanks to Jehovah? How 
shall we bless His name? 

1. In our worship. The Psalms that David wrote 
to be sung in the temple services were full of thanks- 
giving. How the hearts of the worshipers must have 

20 



306 SPECIAL SERMONS 

thrilled as they heard the full chorus singing with 
jubilant strains, ''Bless the Lord, my soul; and all 
that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the 
Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits/' 
Still more should our hearts be thrilled as we think 
of the blessings which God has bestowed upon us, 
far surpassing those enjoyed by Israel of old, and as 
we sing such songs as 

''When aU Thy mercies, O my God, 
My rising soul surveys, 
Transported with the view I'm lost 
In wonder, love and praise." 

Our prayers should be made up largely of thanks- 
giving. The apostle says: ''In everything by prayer 
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests 
be made known unto God." ''Continue in prayer, 
and watch in the same with thanksgiving.'' "In 
everything give thanks; for this is the will of God 
in Christ Jesus concerning you." Let us cry like 
suppliants at the throne of grace, but let us not fail 
to bring the sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of 
our lips, giving thanks to Him who is the giver of 
every good and every perfect gift. 

2. The Jews expressed their gratitude to God by 
a thank-offering. "We must do the same. The thank- 
offering of the Jew was a lamb slain and laid upon 
the altar. The thank-offering which we bring is far 
more precious than that of the Jew. The apostle says, 
"I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God" 
(then it is a thank-offering) "that you present your 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, 
which is your reasonable service." This means that 
the whole body is to be devoted to God — the head to 
devise plans for His honor, the heart to be aflame 



IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS 307 

with holy passion, the hands to do His will, the feet 
to run cheerfully in the way of obedience, so that, no 
matter what we do, it shall be for the glory of God! 
This is thanksliving, and what is thanksliving but 
practical thanksgiving? 

3. Again it is said, ''To do good and to communi- 
cate forget not, for with such sacrifice God is well 
pleased.'' So when v/e minister to the needy, when 
we visit the widow and the orphan in their affliction, 
we are presenting an acceptable sacrifice to the giver 
of every blessing, not a sin-offering, but a thank- 
offering, than which no offering is more acceptable. 

IV. What does this do for the individual who thus 
expresses his gratitude to God? 

1. It brings a blessing that can come in no other 
way. It means enlargement of soul. An ingrate can 
not be happy. Ten lepers came to Christ. They were 
all healed on their way to the priest. Only one re- 
turned to give glory to God; to give thanks to Him 
that had cleansed him of his loathsome disease. In 
his grateful heart he received a blessing greater than 
his cleansing. So it is with us when we thank God 
for the blessings that we receive. 

^'Ten thousand thousand precious gifts 
My daily thanks employ; 
Nor is the least a cheerful heart 
That takes those gifts with joy.'' 

2. But ingratitude! How it debases! Read 
Romans 1 and learn the awful degradations into which 
men fell because of their ingratitude. They became 
vain in their reasonings. Professing themselves to be 
wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the 
incorruptible God for the likeness of corruptible man, 
and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and creeping 



308 SPECIAL SERMONS 

things. For which cause God gave them up in the lusts 
of their hearts to uncleanness, unto vile passions, so 
that they received in their hearts that recompense 
that was their due. 

We have an example of the fruits of ingratitude in 
Nebuchadnezzar. God gave him greatness and glory 
and majesty, but he was unthankful. Then he was 
driven from the sons of men; his heart was made like 
the beasts, his dwelling was with the wild asses, he was 
fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with 
the dew of heaven. What a picture! Just as graphic 
would be the picture of any man to-day who de- 
scends to the low and animal plane of ingratitude. 

What is hell? The abode of ungrateful souls. 
Paul's picture of those who did not give God thanks 
is of men going down, down, down, till they get lower 
than the beasts in their vile passions. You find what 
he says in Romans 1. In this sermon I have not 
quoted the worst. Read it for yourself. How awful 
is the revelation which the apostle makes! It teaches 
us that ungrateful souls slip down little by little till 
they find themselves in utter darkness, where there 
are weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Oh, 
friends, if we have been unthankful, let us repent, let 
us cry unto God for forgiveness, and let us resolve 
that we shall, as long as we live, continue to bring 
forth fruits meet for repentance. 

V. But what is the outcome of a grateful life? 
Listen! John says: '*I saw, and behold, a great multi- 
tude, which no man could number, out of every nation 
and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing be- 
fore the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white 
robes, and palms in their hands; and they cry with a 
great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sitteth on 



IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS 309 

the throne, and nnto the Lamb. And all the angels were 
standing round about the throne, and about the elders 
and the four living creatures; and they fell before 
the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, say- 
ing, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and 
thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, he 
unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And the 
four and twenty elders, who sit before God on their 
thrones, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, 
saying. We give thee thanks, Lord God, the Al- 
mighty, who art and who wast; because thou hast 
taken thy great power, and didst reign." So heaven 
is a place of thanksgiving. There the redeemed, 
whose robes are washed white in the blood of the 
Lamb, who have come up out of great tribulation, who 
have laid aside the sword of conflict and have taken 
up the palm of victory, form an innumerable com- 
pany; each one of them has seized a harp of thanks- 
giving and they are all engaged in a sublime anthem 
of praise; while the angels, folding their wings in 
silence, listen to such a song as they have never learned 
to sing. The spirit of heaven is the spirit of thanks- 
giving, and he who has most thanksgiving in his heart 
has most of heaven in his life. 



ZN. D. WELLS was horn June 14, 1876, in Brooke County, 
• W. Va., and ivas educated at the College of Disciples, 
St. Thomas, Ont., and Bethany College, TV. Va. 

At Bethany he received doth the A.B. and A.M. degrees. He 
was minister of the church of Christ at New Ciimiberland, TV. Va., 
1900-1902; TVillcinshurg, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1902-1906; East Orange, 
N. J., 1906-1912; High Street Church, Akron, 0., 1912 to present 
timrC. 

Mr. TV ells was a member of the Board of the Foreign Chris- 
tian Missionary Society for five years; a member of the Board 
of the Ohio Christian Missionary Society, 1920 and 1921, and a 
member of the first Executive Committee of the Umted Christian 
Missionary Society. 



311 



Wedding Anniversary Sermon 

OUTLINE 

Introduction. — Tlie fundamental institution of our civiliza- 
tion is tlie home, and marriage is its basis. 

I. Marriage Is a Partnership. 

1. The man is the maker of the living. 

2. The woman is the maker of the home. 

n. Some Don'ts for Husbands. 

1. Don't treat your partner as though she were your 

slave. 

2. Don't assume the right of being treasurer in the new 

partnership. 

3. Don't fail to deliver the goods according to the 

sample. 

m. Some Don'ts for "Wives. 

1. Don't neglect your home. 

2. Don't be extravagant. 

3. Don't live with relatives if you can avoid it. 



312 



THE HOME PARTNERSHIP 

Wedding Anniversary Sermon by Z. A^. D. Wells 

Husbands, love your wives. . . . Wives, reverence your hus- 
bands.— Eph. 5 : 22, 25. 

HUSBANDS, love your wives.'' ''Wives, rever- 
ence your husbands." Such is the substance of 
Paul's teaching in Eph. 5:22-33. In order that this 
double injunction may be carried out, wives must be 
lovable and husbands must be worthy of reverence. 
The fundamental institution of our civilization is 
the home. None other has such influence. No other 
institution means so much for the weal or woe of the 
human race. There is a well-nigh universal desire, 
both on the part of the man and the woman, for their 
own home. If one is not happy in his home, he can not 
find happiness anywhere. 

'*Home is not merely four square walls, 
Though hung with pictures finely gilded; 
Home is where affection dwells. 

Filled with shrines the heart hath builded. ' ' 

There is only one foundation upon which a happy 
home can rest — and that foundation is love. There 
are marriages for convenience, for position, for wealth 
and for social advantage. When such a marriage is 
contemplated, our caution would be ''Don't!'' Love 
— and love alone — can create the atmosphere of that 
sanctuary which we call home. 

313 



314 SPECIAL SERMONS 

The ladies* aid society asked an old bachelor to 
speak at their social function, on the subject ** Woman! 
Without her, man would be a savage/' When the 
hour arrived he arose, and said: '^The ladies have fur- 
nished my theme for this evening. The wording of it 
runs, 'Woman without her man, would be a savage.' " 
He wondered why they smiled. It is true he had al- 
tered the meaning by his change of punctuation, but 
I am sure there is much truth in both of the state- 
ments. God felt that Adam was not complete without 
his helpmate — and God ought to know. 

* ^ As unto the bow the cord is^ 
So unto man is woman; 
While she bends him she obeys him, 
While she leads him yet she follows; 
Useless each without the other.'* 

I. Marriage Is a Partnership. 

I wish, in this sermon, to emphasize the fact that 
marriage is a partnership. I shall then define the 
duties and add some don'ts. 

'^I take thee to be my wedded wife, to have and 
to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, 
for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to 
love and to cherish till death us do part, according to 
God's holy ordinance, and thereto I pledge thee my 
troth." 

No more sacred pledge has ever passed the lips 
of any man in the sealing of an earthly contract. If 
marriage is not a partnership, then there are no part- 
nerships in life. In this sacred partnership there is 

1. Tlie man, fhe maker of the living. It is his part 
to support the home, to maintain his wife and babies, 
to plan, to work, to toil for others, to spend his life 
in service for her whom he has selected from all the 



THE HOME PARTNERSHIP 315 

noble women of the world, to be her constant com- 
panion in joy or sorrow, to be snch a father to her 
children as the children can honor, and to be the stay 
and support of her life. This, my friends, is not an 
effort at romantic idealism; it is a plain statement of 
plain truth. If it is a dream, then as a dream it has 
been the inspiration for life's most heroic service. 
Ponder well your promises, and, above all things else 
in life, keep faith with her. 

The husband is the house-band. He must keep the 
home together, provide the family shelter, food, cloth- 
ing, and keep in comfort the sacred place where the 
physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual culture of 
the next generation must be provided. Surely such a 
task is worthy of man's best effort. This is a busy 
world. Competition is tremendously keen. Our mod- 
ern life is complex and strenuous, and, in order to 
accomplish the tasks incident to the maintenance of 
a home, a man needs a clear brain and a strong body. 
As nearly as possible, he should be free from petty 
annoyances and always able to approach his daily 
tasks with full mental vigor. This can only be done 
when things are right at home. 

2. TJie woman, fhe maker of tJie home. The wife 
must be a helpmeet. Not merely a housekeeper, but 
a home-maker, and there is every difference in the 
world between these two. The most important thing 
about a home is not the house, nor is it the furnish- 
ing; it is not gilded pictures and upholstered divans, 
nor velvet carpets and magnificent draperies. The 
vital thing is an atmosphere. Yes, I like to think that 
the woman's sphere is in the creation of an atmos- 
phere. In this atmosphere the husband finds his re- 
laxation and his joy; his daily recreation for the 



316 SPECIAL SERMONS 

tasks and toil of another day amidst the busy whirl 
of this commercial age. In this atmosphere the chil- 
dren love to play, and in it their characters are 
molded for useful citizenship in years to be. The wife 
must be the inspiration for her husband. He must 
achieve for her. Her faith in him must be the well- 
spring of his effort, and, because of her, he must not 
fail. 

There are many things that are vital, things with- 
out which this atmosphere can not be maintained. 
The house must be orderly and clean. It should be 
light and cheerful. Much fresh air must be supplied, 
and every appointment should speak real comfort. 
This does not necessarily mean extravagance. The 
wife must learn to make a real home on whatever in- 
come her husband can provide, and with that income 
she must be content. 

I have little patience with those who speak of the 
limited sphere of woman. Her sphere is well-nigh 
limitless. God places in her arms an infant race. It 
is hers to form and fashion, to mold and model the 
generation of the days to come. She has just been 
given the ballot, but long ago God gave to her the 
boy; momentous compliment — ^the greatest in the his- 
tory of men. 

II. Same Don'ts for Husbands. 

1. Don't treat your partner as tJiougJi site were 
your slave. Remember that in the formation of that 
sacred partnership she placed her all. She sacrificed 
a home filled with the material comforts in which she 
had been cradled and cultured and nurtured, in 
which she had been loved and shielded and protected. 
She sacrificed a rich reality for that which she hoped 
you could provide. I believe that it is not exaggera- 



THE HOME PARTNERSHIP 317 

tion to say that 90 per cent, of the women who marry, 
step out of father's home into a less comfortable and 
convenient house. I have united in marriage more 
than two thousand couples in the last nine years, 
and by far the larger number of them have taken 
but temporary quarters in a few rooms. Remember, 
she sacrificed because she loved and trusted you. You 
are less than a real man if you forget that love or 
betray that trust. She is your partner — ^not your 
slave. 

2. Don't assume tJie right of being treasurer in 
tlie new partnership. She has an equal right in the 
funds of this new firm. Imagine, if you can, a busi- 
ness partnership in which two parties place their 
available capital. The business prospers, but, without 
agreement, one assumes the responsibility for hand- 
ling all the funds. He banks the money and checks 
it out without conference or consultation. For the 
barest necessities of life, the other partner must come 
to him and ask for funds. In feeling at least, reduced 
to beggary, humiliated beyond measure, always un- 
certain as to whether or not his frugal request will 
be granted. I ask you, as a man, how long would 
such a partnership be tolerated? My friends, this il- 
lustration is not an overdraft. Millions of partners in 
that most sacred of partnerships — ^noble women, wives 
and mothers — submit to such an enforced arrange- 
ment without complaint. I know no greater tribute 
to the power of true love than this submission, but 
it is not right. Give to her an allowance that is en- 
tirely adequate for her many needs, or, better still, 
bank the income in a joint account, and, if she is a 
worthy woman, she will suffer want rather than betray 
your confidence and trust. If the funds are too mea- 



318 SPECIAL SERMONS 

ger for a bank account, share the meagerness equally, 
and plan for better days ahead. 

3. Don't fail to deliver the goods according to the 
sample. Some time ago I purchased a suit of clothes 
from a traveling salesman. He displayed a splendid 
line of samples. I selected a very beautiful piece, and 
ordered the suit, which was to be made to my measure, 
and delivered within three weeks. What was my sur- 
prise, about a month later, to receive a suit of inferior 
workmanship, poorer and lighter quality, and of an 
entirely different shade! Upon comparing the material 
with the sample, which I had kept, my ''righteous in- 
dignation'' was aroused and forthwith the suit went 
back. Suppose you were to purchase an Oriental rug 
of beautiful design, and find, upon delivery, that they 
had sent to you the cheapest imitation. Recently I 
heard a woman tell her husband that he was not even 
distantly related to the man she thought she married. 
How courteous and thoughtful he once was! How 
graceful and how kind! How considerate of her com- 
fort and her pleasure! Her slightest wish was his 
supreme law. Think of the flowers and the candy and 
the love tokens! Ah, yes! But you must remember 
that these were in the courtship days. My brother! 
why not deliver the goods according to the sample? 
These things, and a million other little courtesies, must 
not be forgotten. If you forget them, you have been 
deceiving her. 

III. Some Don'ts for Wives. 

1. Don't neglect your home. The home is woman's 
throne. Here she reigns as queen, and here she must 
be queenly. No social success imaginable is sufficient 
recompense for the neglect of the home. The card- 
case and the automobile must not displace the needle 



THE HOME PARTNEESHIP 319 

and the baby-carriage. Women, happy in and en- 
tirely dedicated to the domestic art, are the crying 
need of our generation. Nothing can do more to 
check moral decline and social degeneracy than for 
our wives and mothers to dedicate themselves to the 
creation of a right home atmosphere and fully appre- 
ciate the exalted privilege, the high responsibility, and 
the incalculable influence of true motherhood. 

2. Don't be extravagant. Whatever happens, live 
within your means. Every young couple should make 
it the unalterable rule to save some money from each 
pay. Eemember that expenses will increase with the grow- 
ing family, and that it is easier to save your means 
with a family of two than it will be with three or 
five. Then, too, if we do not form the thrift habit 
in our early married life, it is probable that later it 
will be necessary for the children to sacrifice their 
higher education and miss the largest usefulness in 
life. Again, there is, perhaps, no more prolific source 
of domestic infelicity than the consciousness that one 
can not get ahead. A growing bank account is the 
best insurance policy for domestic happiness. 

3. Don't live with relatives, if you can avoid it. 
How many are the homes that have come to ruin be- 
cause of the sympathetic comfort and ill-advised ad- 
vice of relatives or friends! For instance, there is 
a difference of opinion between the newly-weds, per- 
haps a discussion, maybe an unkind word with rufiled 
feelings and copious tears. She may refuse the good- 
by kiss. With heavy heart he leaves the home mental- 
ly incapacitated for his best work that day. Then the 
inevitable happens. She confides in mother, the mother 
love responds with sympathy and comfort, and in the 
light of this she feels that she really has been wronged. 



820 SPECIAL SEEMONS 

The breach is widened, and when he returns they quar- 
rel, and thus they leave the peaceful harbor and 
launch upon a troubled sea. No, my friends, as man 
and wife sail out together they do not need anything 
so much as they need an open sea. If given plenty of 
sea room, the chances are that they will unitedly 
weather the severest storm. Above all things, when 
difficulties come, brook no interference from relatives 
or friends. 

And, finally, let me say to both, be cheerful, be 
happy, count your blessings, and thank God, remem- 
bering that nothing ever yet brought larger returns 
than kindness, consideration and love. 

*'If with pleasure you are viewing any work your wife is doing; 

If you like her or you love her, tell her now; 
DonH withhold your approbation till the parson makes oration, 

And she lies with snowy lilies o'er her brow; 
For no matter how you shout it, she won't really care about it; 

'She won't know how many teardrops you have shed. 
If you think some praise is due her, now's the time to tell it 
to her, 

For she can not read her tombstone when she's dead. 

''More than fame and more than money is the comment kind and 
sunny. 

And the hearty, warm approval of a friend; 
For it gives to life a savor, and it makes you stronger, braver, 

And it gives you heart and spirit to the end. 
If she earns your praise, bestow it ; if you love her, let her know it ; 

Let the words of true encouragement be said. 
Bo not wait till life is over and she's underneath the clover, 

For she can not read her tombstone when she's dead." 



T^DWIN W. THOBNTON wns lorn on a farm near West Mid- 
I2j dleburg, Logan County, 0., Aug, SO, 1863, and was educated 
in the common schools of Zanesfield, 0.; Prof, J, W, Carter's 
school at Waverly, Mo.; the Missouri State University at Colum- 
hia, Mo., and the Bible College of the Kentucky University, Lex- 
ington, Ky, 

Mr, Thornton preached his first sermon in the church of Christ 
at Enohnoster, Mo,; served the church at Holden, Mo,, for a 
short time 05 supply, and then accepted his first pastorate v)ith 
the church at Paola, Kan, Afterward he preached in Lathrop 
and Carrollton, Mo,; Fort Smith, Ark,; Kansas City, Mo.; May- 
field, Ky,; Pittsburgh and Wayneshurg, Pa,, and Long Beach nnd 
Los Angeles, Calif. Since 1910 he has been editor-in-chief of the 
lesson literature published by The Standard Publishing Company, 
Cincinnati, 0,, spending one and a half years of the time with 
the West Side Church, NewarJc, 0. 



91 821 



Home-coming Day Address 

OUTLINE 

I. Centiipetal Home Forces tliat Center in tlie Home Itself. 

1. Family affection tliat makes eacli member of tlie 

family to love the home. 

2. Family lo3ralty that impels each member to protect 

the home. 

3. Family faith that inspires all to dedicate the home 

to God. 

XL Centrifugal Home Forces that Beach to the * 'Uttermost 
Part of the Earth." 

1. A radiating hospitality that blesses every home 

guest. 

2. A constructive enthusiasm that backs every commu- 

nity interest. 

3. An upbuilding patriotism that supports every nation- 

al ideal. 

4. An outreaching Christian sympathy that extends to 

the rim of the world* 



823 



HOME DYNAMICS 

Home'Coming Day Address by E. JV. Thornton 

Scripture. — ^ ^ Beginning from Jerusalem ' ' (Luke 24 : 47) . 
Used not as a text to be expounded; but as a phrase furnishing 
an idea. 

FRIENDS, we are here to-day in answer to the call 
of memories. Back of your kindly invitations there 
have been silent spiritual appeals even more powerful. 
Every year the memory refrain of ''Home, Sweet 
Home,'* has been mutely sung by the autumn leaves, 
the winter snows, the spring flowers and the summer 
rains, so that with Coates Kinney we can all say: 

"Every tinkle on the shingles has an echo in the heart, 
And a thousand dreary fancies into busy being start. 
And a thousand recollections weave their bright hues into woof, 
As we listen to the patter of the soft rain on the roof.'' 

The memory of the old, shaded house, whose restful 
doorway once framed mother's presence; the memory 
of cool paths through the dewy grasses of mornings 
long gone; the memory of the white-branched, love- 
marked beeches on the hill slope, where young vows 
were once made; the memory of the sweet-toned bell 
that sang its peaceful summons to worshipers no longer 
here — ^these, and like memories, have been the urge that 
has reinforced your written invitations, and we are 
gathered again in the old home community. 

To those of us who in childhood moved away from 
this hallowed spot there are many changes noticeable. 
"We sense the pathetic absence of old landmarks as well 

22 823 



324 SPECIAL SERMONS 

as loved faces. We feel the jar of ultra newness as 
certain ''improvements'' obtrude themselves in the place 
of the bygone things we fain would see again. There 
is a noisy garage standing where the melody of the 
blacksmith's anvil used to be made ; there is a debonair 
public library covering the playground of the old brick 
schoolhouse; there is a brazen-fronted ''movie" theater 
within the walls of the little meeting-house that once 
sent forth the quavering cadences of common-meter 
hymns. The sacred things of yesterday are unable to 
hold their own against the profane things of to-day. 
Yes, and it is barely possible that to those of us who 
have been away, the pull of the old home attic has been 
as great as the pull of your anticipated welcome; for 
to the attic the quaint outgrown things of years agone 
have found their decrepit way. Where else are the 
worn, split-bottomed chairs, the settee, the andirons and 
the tongs? Where is the old Dutch oven that used to 
hover over the fireplace while from beneath its ample 
lid there came forth odors that have never been equaled 
before nor since ? Where are the horn-handled knives, 
the two-pronged forks, the pewter castor — and where 
are the frazzled remains of the once glorious fly-brush 
made of peacock feathers ? Where is the long-spindled, 
corded bedstead, on which the fat straw-tick supported 
the fatter feather bed, inviting disappearance and ob- 
livion? One by one in limping procession they have 
passed up the attic stairs. 

But why should it make any difference what be- 
comes of the rubbish of former generations? Why not 
make kindling-wood of grandmother's spinning-wheel 
and wreckage of grandfather's clock? The real answer 
explains our presence here to-day, and furnishes the 
theme of this address. As in nature there are forces 



HOME DYNAMICS 325 

that throw off from the center, and forces that draw 
in toward the center, so in human relationships there 
are heart forces that are concentric and heart forces 
that are eccentric. 

I. Th^re are centripetal home forces that center in 
the home itself. Since the beginning of history and 
the dawn of tradition Jacobs have been returning to 
Hebron, and Naomis have been going back to Beth- 
lehem. From the corners of the earth men and women 
yield to the irresistible pull of home, and make pil- 
grimages to the scenes of their childhood. Is this the 
mere accident of custom, or is it not rather the subtle 
working of primordial impulses designed to preserve 
the integrity of the home, whence come the forces that 
move mankind, and weld the world to God? It is in 
the home that the family is builded, and it is in the 
family that the race is shaped. Let us therefore make 
brief inventory of the home's centripetal forces in the 
order of their importance. 

1. Family affection, fhat makes each member of the 
family love the home. No one ever loved a house for 
the sake of the house itself, or loved a tree or rock 
because of the inherent loveableness of rocks and trees. 
We love objects and places only as they are inseparably 
associated with somebody, and it is the somebody that 
we love, not the places and objects. Bring down from 
the attic a certain moth-eaten, rickety chair. It is bat- 
tered and unsightly, patched and tottery, yet we look 
at it through tears, and touch it with loving fingers. 
Are our hearts stirred because we love rusted tacks, 
ragged burlap or worm-eaten wood? No, not that. It 
is because mother sat there, or father sat there, or baby 
sat there. It is because some loved one sat there who 
was so much a part of ourselves as to affect the very 



326 SPECIAL SEEMONS 

wellsprings of our life purposes and conduct. All the 
finer sentiments that make life worth living — sympathy, 
kindness, forgiveness, considerateness, solicitude — are 
but different expressions of love. They are facets of 
the one diamond, and it is in the light of home that 
these facets are shaped to reveal their true luster. The 
home is the source of the formative influences that lead 
to human betterment. Whatever dwarfs the homing 
instinct blights humanity at its core, and whatever nur- 
tures it helps to give the world a sound heart. "What 
is the real offence of the man who profiteers in home 
necessities, house rents and home-building materials? 
Is it simply the grabbing of an unfair profit? No. 
That is bad enough, but the real offence is in the 
strangulation of the homing instinct. The profiteer is 
a home strangler. 

And apropos of home strangling, is it not barely 
possible that the modern woman needs to strengthen 
her appreciation of the divineness of her prerogative 
as a home-maker? There are certain theorists who, 
under the seductive plea of ''larger liberty," would 
reduce the home to a communistic garage, and turn the 
community's children over to the town council to be 
mothered. More than any one else it is the mother, 
the wife, the woman, who makes the home to be home. 
There are not enough men in the United States to 
make a home without the presence of a woman to give 
it the right atmosphere. The family is love's supreme 
institution; the home is the family's nesting-place; 
woman is the soul of the home; therefore every home- 
making woman is at the very fountain of the world's 
welfare and happiness. Let no woman who has either 
heart or brains be guilty of dallying with any theory 
of ''emancipation" that calls home a treadmill, and 



HOME DYNAMICS 327 

brands housework as drudgery. ''Housekeeping is 
only the shell of a woman's business," home-making is 
its heart. Does the daily grind become irksome? 
Doubtless it does. But how much of a price is irksome- 
ness when it pays for the privilege of being associated 
with almighty God in the work of molding and lifting 
the race! 

''The purple of her regal robe, 
The crown of regal worth. 
She wears who sways in gentleness 
The scepter of her hearth. '' 

2. Family loyalty, that impels each member to pro- 
tect the home. Based upon family affection, and grow- 
ing out of it, is a second centripetal home force that 
draws the members of the household into a league of 
home protection and defence. It inclines each to stand 
up for the rest, and bands them all together in a com- 
mon determination to preserve the family integrity. 
Most men, as Eauschenbusch says, toil early and late 
''with little else in mind except to maintain their 
homes.'' Most women spend two-thirds of their lives 
in a routine of sacrifice and self -repression in the in- 
terest of home. Most children therefore grow up im- 
bibing from the atmosphere of their surroundings a 
home loyalty that is interwoven with every fiber of 
their being. When conditions are such as to make this 
loyalty impossible, home is not home. Note the quick- 
ness of the average man to resent insult to his family. 
Note the swiftness of the mother as she springs to the 
defence of her children. Note the boasting of the boy 
as he relates the prowess of his dad. Note the pride 
of the girl as she describes the accomplishments of her 
mother. This centripetal loyalty must mean something. 
Jacob Riis says "that one of the direct enemies of the 



328 SPECIAL SERMONS 

home is the slum/' It is the enemy of the home be- 
cause it breeds ignorance, disease and crime; and, 
where there is nothing to love that is loveable, and 
nothing to be loyal to that is worthy, the human being 
sinks to the level of the brute. Slum life, hotel life, 
tramp life, society life, or any other life that interferes 
with the normal growth of home, love and loyalty, is 
inimical to the highest interests of humanity. 

3. Family faith, that inspires all to dedicate the 
home to God. This third centripetal force is not found 
in every home, but it is found in all homes where 
family ideals are at their best. In material wealth, 
conveniences and scientific contrivances, we who are 
here to-day are away in advance of our forefathers. 
They knew nothing about wireless telegraphy, electric 
lighting, telephones, aeroplanes and automobiles, but 
they knew God better than we know Him. When our 
great-grandparents settled this community they en- 
dured hardships and privations of which we have never 
dreamed; their education was limited and unpedagog- 
ical; they never heard of Biblical criticism, and knew 
nothing of the *'two Isaiahs''; but they knew their 
Bibles, and in practically every Christian home there 
was family worship. Out in the fields grandfather read 
the New Testament while the horses rested, and in the 
house grandmother laid the good Book in a convenient 
place where she might pause occasionally for a precious 
glimpse as she went about her homely tasks. The utter 
simplicity of their unclouded faith made spiritual giants 
of those pioneers, and as one by one they have fallen 
with age about us, we have felt ourselves to be like 
underbrush in the presence of passing monarchs of the 
forest. Theirs was the day when mothers taught their 
children to memorize the word of God, so that from a 



HOME DYNAMICS 329 

babe each member of the family grew up, like Timothy, 
knowing the sacred writings which were able to make 
them *'wise unto salvation/' Since then there has been 
a gradual infusion of materialistic, pagan philosophy 
into the minds of those of our sons and daughters who 
have sat at the feet of imported professors, and these 
sons and daughters have come home from college spirit- 
ually negatived for the rest of their lives. The home 
is throwing up the job of Bible training; the public 
school can not undertake it because *' there are too 
many kinds of people to please"; the college is disposed 
to consider the sources of Biblical data as somewhat '* hy- 
pothetical, '^ and the university, to its own satisfaction, 
at least, has analyzed the Bible into nothingness. Even 
in ''church school" circles some of us, with unpracticed 
tongue, have begun to stammer in academic phrase, 
hoping to convey the impression that we are in touch 
with higher learning, but often getting unexpected 
results. The son of a leader in city Sunday-school 
work was asked if his school taught the pupils to memo- 
rize Scripture. ''Naw," he said, ''we don't have any 
of that memory stuff; we study religious education." 
Shades of the apostles, preserve us ! 

No school or other organization of learning can do 
for children and young people what the Christian home 
can do. The three centripetal forces — ^love, loyalty and 
faith — are primarily home forces. They center in the 
home. There they are given and there they are re- 
ceived. But if the home center is satisfied simply to 
centralize, it soon becomes a dead center. When the old 
Jerusalem church was becoming content to remain in 
Jerusalem, it was providentially "scattered abroad." 
Home forces can not remain at home. They are ex- 
pended within the home that they may be expanded 



330 SPECIAL SERMONS 

beyond, and every Christian family circle becomes a 
miniature Jerusalem through: 

n. Centrifugal home forces that reach to the 
''uttermost part of the earth." This is a great vision 
we are trying to get before us — a vision of home as 
the place where, under divine benediction, all the best 
powers of the soul may grow, expand and shape them- 
selves for the job of making the world sweeter and 
better. Among the humblest of these outgoing in- 
fluences is: 

1, A radiating Jiospitality tJiat blesses every Jiome 
guest. 

''There are hermit souls that live withdrawn 

In the place of their self -content ; 
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart 

In a fellowless firmament; 
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths 

Where highways never ran. 
But let me live by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man." 

And, after all, what is it that gives to the roadside 
home that indescribable air of hospitable hominess that 
is so delightful to us? Is it fine furniture, tapestries 
and gold? No, for we have sat at firesides where the 
light flickered over threadbare rugs and pathetically 
faded chairs, and have sensed the presence of a rich 
contentment that no money could buy. Is it an abun- 
dance of delectable food prepared with the skill of a 
chef, and served in elegant taste? No, for we remem- 
ber having sat at a rickety kitchen table, on which there 
was nothing but hot corn pone and sweet milk served 
a la any old way, and we had the time of our life. 
A warm good will glowing in the hearts of home folk, 
and expressing itself in unselfish cordiality — that, and 
that alone, speeds the parting guest, and gives joy to 
the guest who tarries. In fact, we sometimes feel that 



HOME DYNAMICS 331 

an excess of modern conveniences interferes with hos- 
pitality's radiation, so to speak. Pressing a button and 
installing a thermostat may result in light and heat, 
but human solicitude is not turned on that way. 

Permit me to paint a memory picture. The old 
farm home stood on the hill by the side of the ridge 
road, its gable windows overlooking the near-distant 
village, where chimney-tops signaled one another hos- 
pitably. The air was clear and cold, and the fields and 
woods were wrapped in the mantle of God Almighty's 
white. In the farmhouse on the hill every room was 
alive with excited anticipation as scurrying feet and 
hurrying hands wrought magic in the happy prepara- 
tion of the home-coming Thanksgiving dinner. Grand- 
mother sat in her invalid chair where her dear, remi- 
niscent eyes could see a little way down the road, and 
grandfather pottered around doing unnecessary things 
with an air of great concern. Under the direction of 
younger members of the household the finishing touches 
were being given here and there, and then the folks 
began to come. In threes, in sevens, in twos, in fives, 
they stormed the blessed old front porch, some crying, 
others laughing, and all talking at Once. Shall we 
attempt to describe that dinner? No, there are points 
of effort beyond which the vocabulary of mortals be- 
comes anemic and feeble. Suffice it to say that the 
longest dining-table was too short, and had to be sup- 
plemented by a table from the kitchen. The longest 
table-cloth was not long enough, and had to be helped 
out. Chairs were assembled from all over the place, 
and ''Webster's Unabridged" and the big family Bible 
were called upon to assist in elevating the younger 
generation. The only high-chair was given over to the 
youngest baby, who forthwith became the center of 



332 SPECIAL SERMONS 

attention, and the happy meal that had begun with 
grandfather's ''blessing" closed with the tearful hope 
that the circle might remain unbroken for another year. 

Every man who goes forth into the world with such 
a picture in his heart has with him both a guardian 
angel and an angel of conquest over evil. But these 
centrifugal home forces, like circles, grow wider as they 
leave the center, and there is next: 

2. A constructive entTiusiasm tJiat hacks every com- 
mumty interest. The genuine home spirit, being un- 
selfish, is essentially missionary. Its virtues begin at 
home, but they can not stay there. It forms friend- 
ships that link home with home until an interlocked 
group of homes becomes a community, or a family of 
families, so that whatever blesses the community pros- 
pers each citizen, and whatever injures any individual 
cripples the community. Unwillingness or inability to 
see this in homes that are mere stay places, or worse, 
is responsible for the lack of a community conscience, 
which lack, in turn, is responsible for the retardation 
of all that's good. The entire burden of community 
betterment rests upon the homes that get back of every- 
thing that is right, and array themselves against every- 
thing that is wrong. May God have pity upon the 
spawning sources of those supine inhabitants who take 
greedy advantage of every civic improvement, but take 
no constructive interest in, and contribute nothing to, 
the public welfare. After the smashing of windows, 
robbery, looting and assault that took place during the 
strike of the Boston police force, the Transcript had 
this to say: ''Boston is reaping what she has sown. 
She is ascertaining that among large masses of her 
population no foundation of religion and character has 
been laid to which can be spiked a morality that will 



HOME DYNAMICS 333 

work.'^ The foundations of religion and character are 
laid in Christian homes. Out from them must go the 
intelligence that seeks the community's good through 
all constructive religious, social, educational, political, 
commercial, civic and philanthropic organization, and 
no community life can even offer its families protection 
from the lust of the despoiler until men make home 
the object of their chiefest solicitude, and women con- 
sider home-making the supreme privilege of woman- 
hood. In a material sense Christian citizenship '' re- 
quires the subordination of private interests to the 
public good," but in a spiritual sense the civic right- 
eousness of a community never rises above the moral 
and religious ideals of the homes that compose it. 

It can not be said too frequently that the Christian 
home is the chief support of the church of our Lord, 
and is the supporting background of all community 
movements and institutions identified with the public 
weal. Out from a home atmosphere of sunny devout- 
ness a child goes naturally into the wider joy of the 
Master's kingdom. Out from a home atmosphere where 
books are loved he goes happily into the wider fields 
of knowledge. This is why the memory of school-days 
softens our eyes, and brings a reminiscent smile, and 
we love the poet who wrote : 

''The rieli air is sweet witli the breath of September, 
The sumach is staining the hedges with red; 
Soft rests on the hill-slopes the light we remember, 
The glory of days that so long ago fled — 
When, brown-cheeked and ruddy, 
Blithe-hearted and free, 
The summons to study 
We answered with glee. 
Listen, oh I listen once more to the swell 
Of the masterful, merry Academy bell.*' 



334 SPECIAL SERMONS 

But let US follow again the still widening circles of 
the home's centrifugal influences and we shall see: 

3. An upbuilding patriotism that supports every 
national ideal. When the World War began, we citi- 
zens of the United States felt ourselves to be merely 
long-distance spectators of a quarrel that was none of 
our business. We had no notion of entering the con- 
flict. We had been cultivating the ideals of peace. 
We even did not believe in war. But later, when un- 
bridled ruthlessness broke loose in Europe, seeking ut- 
terly to ''crush the spirit of all free peoples," and 
force upon the world the doctrine that ''might makes 
right," our Government decided that national honor 
made it necessary for us to leap into the fray and 
help the Allies. From the capitol at Washington a 
direct appeal to patriotism was sped across the thresh- 
old of the homes of America, and, like magic, the 
nation arose to the rescue. Now, what national ideal 
were we supporting? Simply this — ^we were upholding 
the traditions of our great-visioned forefathers who 
saw more in American patriotism than a mere willing- 
ness to flght when attacked. Around their flresides 
they dedicated themselves to their beloved America, 
and in their assemblies they dedicated their beloved 
America to almighty God and to the defence of eter- 
nal righteousness and justice. 

Under modern conditions we are in danger of los- 
ing this lofty ideal. Hordes of strangers from all 
over the world have swarmed into our cities, scattering 
godlessness and un-American conceptions of life and 
conduct. New York, for instance, is a city of cities. 
Within her corporate limits there are teeming popula- 
tions that neither speak our language nor understand 
one another. In the light of this fact, we scarcely 



HOME DYNAMICS 335 

know how to resent the unfeeling sneer that *'the 
statue of Liberty was designed by a Dago and pre- 
sented to the United States by the French to enlighten 
the Irish immigrant on his way to Dutch New York/' 
The children of these foreign folk are, many of them, 
keen-minded and eager to learn. They are capable of 
catching the true spirit of our Republic, but the trans- 
forming democracy of the unecclesiasticised religion of 
Jesus Christ is the only power that can make their 
perfect Americanization a fact. 

An American girl was in conversation with a titled 
Englishman who was inclined to snobbishness. He 
said: ''The stripes in your American flag make it 
look like a stick of cheap candy, don't you know." 
''Yes," she flashed, "there is some resemblance; it 
makes everybody sick who tries to lick it." Very 
gleefully and properly we shout our approval of this 
platform story, but, friends, we must not forget that 
American patriotism means more than exultation over 
victories. No type of patriotism is ideally American 
except Christian patriotism. The founders of our Re- 
public were men and women whose supreme aim was 
to dedicate it to the promotion of the Christian re- 
ligion. "We have always been classed among the Chris- 
tian nations of the world. The Supreme Court of the 
United States has declared that we are a Christian 
nation. The charters of the early colonies formally 
asserted the fact. "Within one hundred years after the 
landing at Jamestown three colleges were founded: 
Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale. They were all 
dedicated to the propagation of Christian righteous- 
ness. The national observance of Christmas and 
Thanksgiving Day has continuously proclaimed to the 
world that we are a Christian nation. So indisputa- 



336 SPECIAL SERMONS 

ble is this fact; so plainly has it been written into our 
national history; so essentially has it been wrought 
into our national institutions and breathed into our 
very life — that an American home, to be patriotic in 
the highest sense, must be Christian. Deliberate god- 
lessness is treason to the ^' Stars and Stripes," and no 
atheist can be one hundred per cent. American. 

The final and already anticipated centrifugal force 
emanating from the home is: 

4. An out-reacMng CJiristian sympatJiy tJiat extends 
to the rim of the world, A Christian nation can not 
do otherwise than disseminate Christianity. In the 
very nature of things the religion of Jesus Christ 
has to be given in order to be kept. From the home, 
through the church, its radiating power is divinely 
designed to go out and out until it touches the bor- 
ders of human habitations. In the necessary effort 
to reach and warm the chilled heart of the last 
man lies the power that keeps the home fires 
burning. Such is the ideal. Such the divine 
plan. But how well are we qualified to carry it out? 
Investigation shows that half the children and youth 
of our own country are not reached by any organized 
religious educational influence whatever. Multiplied 
thousands of children from polyglot and unenlightened 
birth-springs are streaming into the current of to-mor- 
row's citizenship while an inadequate number of Bible 
schools are devoting thirty minutes a week to the work 
of focusing the sun rays of the Christian religion upon 
the turbid tide. Can this *' spiritual illiteracy,'' this 
pauperism of soul, go on forever without cumulative 
and retroactive disaster? Can a misasmatic marsh for- 
ever be left undrained without menace to the dwellers 
on the heights? The mayor of a great city once re- 



HOME DYNAMICS 337 

fused to inspect and clean up the slums. His daughter 
bought an expensive coat from a fashionable modiste, 
who let out a part of the work to a less fashionable 
tailor, who sub-let some of the rougher sewing to a 
tenement seamstress. After wearing the garment a 
few times, the young girl sickened and died of a ter- 
rible contagion. The tenement had struck back. Ex- 
tending the argument, can any American Christian 
home afford not to cultivate a world vision? Some- 
how, sometime, the *' uttermost part of the earth" will 
strike back unless our Lord's commission is carried 
out, beginning at the Jerusalem of each Christian fire- 
side and reaching to the world's horizon. 

That, and that alone, which can save our country 
from the crumbling disintegration that has befallen 
the nations of antiquity, is the continuous infusion of 
the spiritual ideals of the Christian religion into our 
home and national life. These spiritual ideals include 
a redemptive interest in all '^the people that sit in 
darkness.'' In saving others we save ourselves, and in 
neglecting ourselves we lose the rest. Sectarianism 
and liberalism have been equally shortsighted in failing 
to see that the New Testament church solves the prob- 
lem of universal brotherhood by simply consisting of 
the total number of individuals who, through implicit 
obedience to the divine will, are united with and living 
in Jesus Christ, and so constitute the ''family of God." 
The sectarian spirit can not make disciples of all the 
nations because the nations do not care to be en- 
meshed in fifty-seven varieties of ecclesiastical harness. 
The spirit of liberalism can not ''go into all the world 
and preach the gospel," because, unless it can first 
get its feet placed somewhere, it can not even start. 
Our heterogeneous population puts us in racial touch 



338 SPECIAL SERMONS 

with the world, but the world can never be touched 
spiritually through a heterogeneous gospel. Josiah 
Strong said: *^The supreme need of the world is a 
real God; not the great perhaps, but the great I am,'' 
If this be true, then, in the very nature of things, the 
preparation to meet the world's need must begin in the 
warm firelight of the world's homes. 

Friends, those of you who have stayed here in the 
old home community are the custodians of the material 
things associated with the childhood of us all. It is 
your privilege daily to look upon scenes the very ab- 
sence from which ofttimes makes the rest of us sick at 
heart. Once more we home-comers scatter to our newer 
places of interest, carrying added memories of your 
graciousness. Once more we leave to you the care of 
the old home that is so rich in associations. Once 
more from the hill-road we shall look back upon the 
homes of friends who are here, and upon the near-by 
peaceful abiding-place of loved ones that are gone, 
and say ''good-by till we meet again." 

' * The clouds are round us and the snow-drifts thicken. 
0, Thou dear Shepherd, leave us not to sicken 
In the waste night; our tardy footsteps quicken; 
At evening bring^ us home.*' 



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